Math/Maths Podcast: Peter Rowlett in the UK talks to Samuel Hansen in the US about news & current affairs.
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About Peter Rowlett
I am interested in mathematics education & maths promotion.
More information on my website peterrowlett.net.
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Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Least world records
This morning I saw a tweet from Tony Mann about Berry's Paradox, formulated by Tony as "The smallest integer not identifiable in a tweet". (A paradox, of course, because that phrase identifies a specific integer.)
This reminds me that I have noticed a few times recently people online reciting the joke that goes like: "I hold the world record (jointly) for least world records (this one)". (Here's an arbitrary example found through Twitter search.)
Accept for the moment that such a record exists. Then someone who held one world record for something else (most socks being worn by people spinning plates in a leisure centre, or something) would also jointly hold one world record, so would share the world record for least, so would hold two, so wouldn't share the record...
This reminds me that I have noticed a few times recently people online reciting the joke that goes like: "I hold the world record (jointly) for least world records (this one)". (Here's an arbitrary example found through Twitter search.)
Accept for the moment that such a record exists. Then someone who held one world record for something else (most socks being worn by people spinning plates in a leisure centre, or something) would also jointly hold one world record, so would share the world record for least, so would hold two, so wouldn't share the record...
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