Quote:
Originally posted by Nic Name
John Nash could.
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Actually, you're thinking of John von Neumann. He was a bit of a showman during his time. Once at a party, a woman walked up to him and posed a math riddle, "Supposed two trains are headed towards each other at 60mph, 60 miles apart. A fly is flying back and forth between the two trains at 120mph, until the trains collide and crush him. How far will he have flown before getting crushed?"
There are two ways to do this problem: You can set up an infinite sum and find the convergence point (that's what I did), or you can realize the trick -- the trains will meet in 30 minutes (60 miles apart, 60mph), therefore the fly is travelling 120mph for 30min, or a distance of 60 miles.
Almost immediately after hearing the riddle, John looked at the woman and said, "60 miles."
She replied, "Wow! That's great -- most people don't realize the trick -- they use an infinite sum."
To which he replied, "What trick?"
The guy had some wicked brain power. He could remember lines from books and excerpts from papers verbatim years after reading them.
Kudos to those who might be able to put this limerick to words: (144 + 12 + 20 + 3sq4)/7 + (5 * 11) = 9^2 + 0