Talk:1208: Footnote Labyrinths

Way to nerd-snipe me, Randall. Alpha (talk) 04:52, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

In the nested-footnotes interpretation, 5 has to be ignored: The 6 must be true, and the 6 says that it’s “actually a 1”, but with footnote 2+2 which says “ibid.” and thus equals footnote 3, which is true. So 6 really does mean actually a 1, which leaves 5 to be ignored. --77.186.8.191 10:47, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

The footnote for 6 is actually 1 to the 2 to the 2 Schmammel (talk) 12:36, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Explaination is wrong : a^bc = a^(bc) = a^{b^c} (confer the definition of a gogol = 10^100 = 10¹⁰², and a gogolplex = 10^gogol = 10^(10100), not 10^110. So since 1^2= 1, No¹² really means No¹.

Question, alternative explination

I wasn't really satisfied with the whole discarding of the infinite loop, so I worked through the problem seperately using the nested footnotes. Then, when we hit the infinite loop I split between the two possible answers (either the infinite loop ends on true or false). As I read it, they both get the same answer:

no (3) no (not true (5)) no (not true (true (2 < 6 < 3)) no (not true (true (2 < 6 < (not true)))) no (not true (true (2 < (actually 1 < 2 < 2 (not true 3 < 2))))) no (not true (true (2 < (actually 1 < 2 < 2 (not true (5)))))

Split! If 6 is false (infinite loop possibility) no (3 < 5 < 2) no (not true (7)) - meaningless, so discard no (not true)

If 6 is true (infinite loop possibility) no (3 < 5 < 1 < 2 < 2) no (3 < 5 < 1 < 4) no (3 < 5 < 1) no (3) no (not true)

Both lead to the answer "... experiments to observe this and we found evidence for it in our data".