h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Couple of things I spotted, could be clearer:

>If we just keep chopping of parts from the ends of it,

'off' not 'of', but more importantly, you could use 'intervals' instead of 'parts' to be a bit clearer.

>remove the middle part (but leaving the endpoints of it).

Endpoints suggests points to me, You mean "leaving the other two parts".

>Repeat this procedure an infinite number of times.

Someone is going to ask which infinity

Thank you for your input! Great that someone is reading my stuff. =)

Off/of issue: will be corrected right away. I'll think about the parts/interval wording...

Endpoints issue: I actually meant "leaving the endpoints of the middle part [and, of course, the two other parts in their entirety]". Maybe I should've written this in proper "mathese" instead, and said "remove the open interval in the middle", and then explained what that meant. I'll look it over, though.

Infinity issue: Hehe...probably. I might as well answer that right away: It will be a countable infinity, as you can talk about the first step, the second step, the third step, ..., the nth step, ...

a few nits:
- the graphics (formula) are black on blue in Goo -- fairly invisible.
- as to the size of infinity, see/cross-check/reference to http://www.h2g2.com/A414523, Infinity and the Infinite Hotel Paradox
I think there's a Peer Review Thread on this entry under way.

I'll make the backgrounds of the gifs white instead of transparent. That should sort the problem.
As for the reference, I was planning on an entry of my own on Hilbert's Hotel, but the one in existance is quite alright, so I think I'll just reference that one instead (and ask if the author wants to join the set theory project =).

keep on the good work :-) Perhaps you may want to comment there (on the infinite Hotel thing): http://www.h2g2.com/F48874?thread=80374&skip=0&show=20 PS: I'm shamelessly trying to connect some (hopefully) die-hard researchers here, in the sense of http://www.h2g2.com/A487253, Feedback on H2G2 :-)

Jaz,

The h2g2 MI has some guidelines for in article notation now. I decided on a solution to get around the skins problem in unedited articles. It isn't ideal (oh for when GuideML includes a TeX processor ) but does the job for now.

Read the notation section of the page.

BTW, nice article but try and include a story to go along with it. An example would be an anecdote about a man who boasted he could count the points on a line. He found himself with a line before him so (knowing that dividing a problem up makes it more manageble) he uses the method to split the line. Just an example off the top of my head.

The story provides an image and so something for the brain to latch on to.

Hmmm...Joe and stories...

Yes, a story to go along would help, but I think it really should be a true one. Maybe something about how Cantor found it, or reactions from other mathematicians at the time (If that info exists). Maybe something about Cantor going loony later on.

We won't be able to stick to true stories all the time, but if one exists and is appropriate then use it