More Fun with Mathematics

The Black Void - Episode 698

I decide that I ought to turn off the lamp. Perhaps I have been subliminally aware of the light from it, and that has been why my sleep hasn't been as restful as I would have liked. I get up from the couch to walk the few feet across the room to the lamp.

I cross half the distance to the lamp, then half of the remaining distance, then half of that. At that point I start to panic. I feel that I am never going to be able to reach the lamp, even though I'll be able to get arbitrarily close to it. I'm the victim of a mathematical paradox! Why should this happen to me now, when I didn't have any problem with the lamp earlier?

  1. I fight off my panic, and of course then reach the lamp with no difficulty.
  2. I cover ever and ever shorter distances, never quite reaching the lamp. Eventually I decide that I'll have to be a bad guest and wake James up with a call for help.
  3. I cover ever and ever shorter distances, never quite reaching the lamp. That's where James finds me in the morning.
  4. I turn round and attempt to return to the couch, but have the same problem.
  5. Then I wake up for real. Yes, I'd only dreamt that I'd woken up.
  6. I cover ever and ever shorter distances, never quite reaching the lamp. I look down at my watch...

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JH

4/24/2005 9:29:26 AM

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