Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel is a veridical paradox (a valid argument with a seemingly absurd conclusion, as opposed to a falsidical paradox, which is a seemingly valid demonstration of an actual contradiction) about infinite sets presented by German mathematician David Hilbert (1862–1943) in the 1920s, meant to illustrate certain counterintuitive properties of infinite sets.
Read more about Hilbert's Paradox Of The Grand Hotel: The Paradox, Analysis, The Grand Hotel Cigar Mystery, References in Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words grand hotel, paradox, grand and/or hotel:
“Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come. People go. Nothing ever happens.”
—William A. Drake (19001965)
“A good aphorism is too hard for the teeth of time and is not eaten up by all the centuries, even though it serves as food for every age: hence it is the greatest paradox in literature, the imperishable in the midst of change, the nourishment whichlike saltis always prized, but which never loses its savor as salt does.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)
“I was walking along and Im looking at the tall buildings. And I got to thinking about what Thoreau said: They created a lot of grand palaces here, but they forgot to create the noblemen to put in them.”
—Robert Riskin (18971955)
“In soliciting donations from his flock, a preacher may promise eternal life in a celestial city whose streets are paved with gold, and thats none of the laws business. But if he promises an annual free stay in a luxury hotel on Earth, hed better have the rooms available.”
—Unknown. Charlotte Observer (October 6, 1989)