[Guest]

If from today John spends an infinite amount of time reading and then tomorrow Robert repeats this exercise (i.e. from tomorrow Robert reads for an infinite amount of time) who will have read for longer?

[Guest]

At any given time, John will have read more (assuming they both read at the same speed). Time is measurable and John will have been reading longer, but, when the exercise is finished (never), they will both have read the same amount... although... where are they going to get all those books?

[Guest]

If from today John spends an infinite amount of time reading and then tomorrow Robert repeats this exercise (i.e. from tomorrow Robert reads for an infinite amount of time) who will have read for longer?

Again this riddle is about maths

If the two boys can live for ever by reading then the time the are reading is oo(the symbol of infinity in maths.

And by the math rules a number plus infinite equals infinite

and there are 2 infinites -oo and +oo but now we are talkaing about +oo so =>

+oo + 24(hours) = +oo so the time they read is the same

thats the mathimatical excplanation.

Now maybe there is an idiomatism behind this suck as they will live another 60 years so the one has read 60 years and 1 day or other b/s.

THATS MY OPINION ENJOY

[Guest]

If from today John spends an infinite amount of time reading and then tomorrow Robert repeats this exercise (i.e. from tomorrow Robert reads for an infinite amount of time) who will have read for longer?

John

If they both stopped reading at the same time, then one would say John.

If they both never stop reading, why should this fact change?

[Guest]

To compare the reading time of John and Robert

I would have to have a measure of time they read

But since I cannot measure the infinite

I have nothing to compare.

So I don't know.

Is 'I don't know' the correct answer?

[bonanova]

If from today John spends an infinite amount of time reading and then tomorrow Robert repeats this exercise (i.e. from tomorrow Robert reads for an infinite amount of time) who will have read for longer?

Let J be the number of days John reads and R be the number of days Robert reads. For any finite number of days,

[1] J = R + 1.

Now the question is worded, "they both read for an infinite amount of time" [then] who will have read for longer?

The verb tense is future perfect. That is, it refers to a time in the future [future] when the deed mentioned [read for an infinite amount of time] is completed [perfect]. That is, the reference point of the question is after an infinite amount of time has passed. Lay aside the impossibility of being able to look back after an infinite period, we would have to do it from a finite period and then grow the period without bound. We thus write

[2] lim_J->inf [J] = lim_J=>inf [R] = inf.

Equations [1] and [2] do not contradict. inf is not a number. So inf+1 = inf is not a contradiction.

The paradox comes when we write

[3] J - R = 1

[4] lim_J->inf [J - R] = lim_J->inf [1] = 1 = lim_J->inf [J] - lim_J->inf [R] = 0. [if we were to imagine that inf-inf=0.]

The answer to this paradox is: inf - inf is not a proper construction.

inf is not a number or the symbol for a number.

So inf - inf cannot be said to be 0; it can be anything.

For example, the number I of positive integers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... is inf.

The number O of positive odd integers 1, 3, 5, ... is inf.

The number E of positive even integers 2, 4, 6, 8, ... is inf.

Now it's tempting to say I = O + E. And that's true for any finite even cutoff point, say 1000: I = 1000, E = 500 and O = 500.

But including all integers, then I = U = E = inf. So here you see I - E = O gives: inf - inf = inf!

Moral to the story. Don't do arithmetic with inf.

The resolution of this is also that, for the infinite set of integers, I, E, and O are not numbers, either.

They are the cardinality of the lowest order of infinity, which is the cardinality of the natural numbers.

For that reason it's called a countable infinity.There are larger infinities.

[Guest]

Infinity -1 is still infinity.

If you stop them reading at a point that you can measure the amount of time in units less than infinity then they have not read for an infinite amount of time.

Therefore, because you are measuring after an infinite amount of time, they have both read for an infinite amount of time, which is to say they have both read for the same amount of time.

[Guest]

lets say infinte is X

John reads X amount

Robert reads X amount

X = X

Read the same amount

[Guest]

I think there is no need to think (by the way this statement became a paradox by chance) because in both cases we get infinite amount of time and then we try to compare the both infinities which is not possible because in this case the out come is always un determined. However if there is really actual out come at some where some time which contains also some finite value, we must believe that it is the decision of GOD who probably controls or tweak the universe at quantum levels.