Not that many years ago a class of math students whose majors were in Chemistry, Physics and Engineering were being introduced to the Law of Diminishing Halves in Calculus. Simply stated, they were told that if they approached an object by taking an initial step then a step equal to of one half the remaining distance to the object, and then one-half again etc. then you could not actually touch the object that you were approaching.
The practical test was provided as follows:
Assume that you are a straight, sex starved, horny male student and imagine that you are in a room eight feet across and you are pressed against a wall. You are gazing at a stunning, gorgeous, well apportioned, naked freshman girl who looks very anxious to meet you and she is pressed against the opposite wall facing you.Please take an initial step and then take recurring steps equal to one half of the remaining distance to the young lady.My question to you is “Can you take advantage of this situation?”
This was troubling to the Chemistry and Physics students as neither could see a way to make the proof on only one sheet of paper and in fact, the next week at the lecture, each did provide a single sheet response proving unequivocally that indeed they could not take advantage of the situation. The chemistry student had actually also used both sides of the single sheet of paper.
Both were awarded an ‘A’ and both, with no errors had formed a correct response. The chemistry student nearly lost a couple of points for using both sides of the single sheet of paper.
The engineering student had also submitted his answer on a single sheet of paper. He answer looked hastily written and only consumed a line of text in large print. It said (8, 4, 2, 1, 0.5, Now I am close enough for practical purposes) He got an A+.
