Saturday, November 16, 2024

Hilbert’s Infinite Grand Hotel

This paradox is used to explain how infinity plus one can work, or infinity doubled.

Imagine a hotel with infinite rooms and infinite guests in those rooms. But, oh the horror, someone new appears and needs a room.

The simple answer he came up with was that everyone moved over one room, so the newcomer gets room 1, and whoever was in room 1 before is now in room 2 and so on.

But, suddenly a bus shows up with an infinite number more of guests. Where do they go?

His answer was that he’d ask everyone to go to the room number double theirs, so room 3 goes to room 6 and so on, which leaves all the odd numbers open for the new guests to use.

If you want to know more, check the sources below.


Source:

Math Stack Exchange- Hilbert’s Hotel

Teaching Calculus- Hilbert’s Hotel

Science ABC—Hilbert’s Hotel

Plus Maths--Hilbert's Hotel

Britannica—Hilbert’s Hotel

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