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Sim glitch re: Halford numbers - the paradox of the WORM and the RUBBER BAND

Suppose that a useless PISSworm crawls along a 1-metre rubbe...
coral appetizing halford stage
  08/10/15
9245872459877474502487245987457264574572487265
Cruel-hearted Hairraiser Ticket Booth
  08/10/15
LOL, unmitigated 928374897239847982374923
Vibrant Insane Fat Ankles
  08/10/15
...
milky motley dilemma new version
  08/10/15
hard 2 understand this presentation with the rubber band and...
Jet-lagged dysfunction
  08/10/15
...
Jet-lagged dysfunction
  08/10/15
...
coral appetizing halford stage
  08/10/15
hmmm...
Mahogany Maniacal Brethren Bawdyhouse
  11/18/18
...
adulterous address partner
  11/18/18
...
coral appetizing halford stage
  07/09/25
fantastic bump
Burgundy geriatric sanctuary
  07/09/25


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Date: August 10th, 2015 3:17 AM
Author: coral appetizing halford stage

Suppose that a useless PISSworm crawls along a 1-metre rubber band at the same time as the rubber band is uniformly stretched. If the worm travels 1 centimetre per minute and the band stretches 1 metre per minute, will the worm ever reach the end of the rubber band?

The answer, counterintuitively, is "yes", for after n minutes, the ratio of the distance travelled by the worm to the total length of the rubber band is

\frac{1}{100}\sum_{k=1}^n\frac{1}{k}

(In fact the actual ratio is a little less than this sum as the band expands continuously). The reason is that the band expands behind the worm also; eventually, the worm gets past the midway mark and the band behind expands increasingly more rapidly than the band in front.

Because the series gets arbitrarily large as n becomes larger, eventually this ratio must exceed 1, which implies that the worm reaches the end of the rubber band. However, the value of n at which this occurs must be extremely large: approximately e100, a number exceeding 10^44.

The exact value of n is 15092688622113788323693563264538101449859497.

Although the harmonic series does diverge, it does so very slowly.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#28519125)



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Date: August 10th, 2015 3:44 AM
Author: Cruel-hearted Hairraiser Ticket Booth

9245872459877474502487245987457264574572487265

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#28519247)



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Date: August 10th, 2015 6:59 AM
Author: Vibrant Insane Fat Ankles

LOL, unmitigated 928374897239847982374923

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#28519429)



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Date: August 10th, 2015 8:44 AM
Author: milky motley dilemma new version



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#28519549)



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Date: August 10th, 2015 9:04 AM
Author: Jet-lagged dysfunction

hard 2 understand this presentation with the rubber band and the latex. nobody reads latex faggot and after googling this i see that its not a circular BAND but a ROPE with fixed ends. i found this http://www.theproblemsite.com/problems/high-school-math/2002/long-walk

but i still dont get it. why isnt it the case that the distance between the worm and the end of the rope is getting longer and longer over time, so the worm can never reach the end?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#28519590)



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Date: August 10th, 2015 1:53 PM
Author: Jet-lagged dysfunction



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#28520692)



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Date: August 10th, 2015 5:07 PM
Author: coral appetizing halford stage



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#28522133)



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Date: November 18th, 2018 10:20 PM
Author: Mahogany Maniacal Brethren Bawdyhouse

hmmm...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#37260869)



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Date: November 18th, 2018 10:21 PM
Author: adulterous address partner



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#37260881)



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Date: July 9th, 2025 4:22 PM
Author: coral appetizing halford stage



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#49087353)



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Date: July 9th, 2025 4:23 PM
Author: Burgundy geriatric sanctuary

fantastic bump

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2959236&forum_id=2/#49087355)