Population: None
I was listening radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There is a quote from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe:
"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."
The question is arised in my mind:
"Why number of inhabitad worlds can't be infinite?"
(We can discuss about it and you can correct my spelling.)
Search from various English teachers...
Corrections · 7
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Population: None
I was listening to the radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There is a quote from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe:"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."
The question is
[or 'This question occured to me:']
"Why can't the number of inhabited worlds
(We can discuss
In practical terms, I'd say you're right. Douglas Adams is just playing about with crazy statistics. He is suggesting that given an infinite number of planets, there will always be at least one which is not inhabited. For this reason, he argues, the number of inhabited planets will always be less than infinity, because if you counted to infinity, you'd be counting the uninhabited ones too. He suggests that if the number of planets is less than infinity (even if it it infinity minus 1), then it must be a finite number!
In my opinion, he was a comedy writing genius, and I recommend his books to everyone.
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Oh my, so many errors in so little text.
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Population: None
I was listening to a radio series on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There is a quote from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe:"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."
The question is arised in my mind:
"Why can't the number of inhabited worlds be infinite?"
This was a really interesting quote, by the way.
(We can discuss about it and you can correct my spelling.)
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