* * * * *

                        Now, about Arlo Lipof's gold …

Yesterday [1] I posted about cutting a square of gold in such a way that when
reassembled, it appeared that you get more gold than you started with, and
that it's related to the Banach-Tarski Paradox [2] (which is a real
mathematical theorm by the way).

I'm sorry to say that the cuts suggested won't generate any more gold (least
everybody would be doing it and the price of gold wouldn't be anywhere near
$585 an ounce (up $5 since yesterday I see). The Banach-Tarski Paradox works
on mathematical cows [3], not real world matter. Had one actually cut gold as
specified, you would still end up with 64 cubic inches of gold, with a
slender 1 cubic inch gap in the middle. I remember as a kid spending a few
hours proving that to myself (lots of algebra, slops, Y-intercepts, area of
triangles, that type of stuff, all on a sheet of graph paper) because, you
know, I wanted to make sure before asking the 'rents for $50,000.

Boy, talk about disappointing.

[1] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2006/04/01.1
[2] http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/5/23/134430/275
[3] http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/SHEPARD-SPECIAL/Commentators/.Boroditsky.html

Email author at [email protected]

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.conman.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.