Question

Riddle:

Answer 1

Consider a lamp, with a switch. Hit the switch once, it turns it on. Hit it again, it turns it off. Let us imagine there is a being with supernatural powers who likes to play with this lamp as follows. First, he turns it on. At the end of one minute, he turns it off. At the end of half a minute, he turns it on again. At the end of a quarter of a minute, he turns it off. In one eighth of a minute, he turns it on again. And so on, hitting the switch each time after waiting exactly one-half the time he waited before hitting it the last time. Applying the above discussion, it is easy to see that all these infinitely many time intervals add up to exactly two minutes.

QUESTION: At the end of two minutes, is the lamp on, or off?

ANOTHER QUESTION: Here the lamp started out being off. Would it have made any difference if it had started out being on?

Answer 2

are riddles the new trend now?

Answer 3

even number...so at the end of two minutes it will be off

Answer 4

wait...did it start on or off?

Answer 5

From http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/prime/articles/zeno_tort/index.asp

Answer 6

if it started on...then at the end of two minutes, it will be off

if it started off...at the end of two minutes it will be on

Answer 7

1+1/2+1/4+1/8+1/16+1/32.... = 2 right?

Answer 8

right

Answer 9

So how did u know there are even number terms in the sequence

Answer 10

i have done a lot of lgbariddles and i've done this already

Answer 11

oh

Answer 12

lgbariddles?

Answer 13

not familiar with those notorius things huuh

Answer 14

http://www.google.com/search?q=lgbariddle+site%3Aopenstudy.com&sugexp=chrome,mod=8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Answer 15

I have seen one of that lgbariddle

Answer 16

and it's even because the result is even

Answer 17

let me think on it

Answer 18

take all the time you need

Answer 19

@lgbasallote didnt get it

Answer 20

Can u explain how