Author: karyasarma

Quote #60

If you look close enough to the world around you, you might find someone like you. Someone trying to find their way, someone trying to find their self. Sometimes it seems like you are the only one in the world who’s struggling, who’s frustrated, unsatisfied, and barely getting by. But that feeling’s a lie. And if you just hold on, just find the courage to face it all for another day, someone or something will find you and make it all okay. Because we all need a little help sometimes. We need someone to remind us that it won’t always be this way. That someone is out there. And that someone will find you.

from One Tree Hill (Season 4)

Quote #57

They laughed at me for I was coal;
And they were pearls and rubies…
They questioned my shine, my lusture,
“On a coal, what did it bring?”
They simply had no clue…
That I was DIAMOND in the making…

wricha

Quote #56

Many people would be scared if they saw in the mirror, not their face, but their character.

Anonymous

Tukang Kayu

Seorang tukang kayu membutuhkan waktu 4 menit untuk membelah kayu menjadi 4 bagian. Berapa waktu yang dibutuhkannya untuk membelah kayu tersebut menjadi 3 bagian?

Jawaban

8/3 menit.

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Penjelasan

Untuk membelah kayu menjadi 4 bagian, tukang kayu hanya membutuhkan 3 kali pembelahan. Setiap pembelahan memakan waktu 4/3 menit.

Untuk membelah kayu menjadi 3 bagian, tukang kayu hanya membutuhkan 2 kali pembelahan dengan waktu 2 x (4/3 menit) = 8/3 menit.

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Playing Games With Eternity: The Devil’s Offer

by Edward J. Gracely

Suppose Ms C dies and goes to hell, or to a place that seems like hell. The devil approaches and offers to play a game of chance. If she wins, she can go to heaven. If she loses, she will stay in hell forever; there is no second chance to play the game. If Ms C plays today, she has a 1/2 chance of winning. Tomorrow the probability will be 2/3. Then 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, etc., with no end to the series. Thus every passing day increases her chances of winning. At what point should she play the game?

The answer is not obvious; after any given number of days spent waiting, it will still be possible to improve her chances by waiting yet another day. And any increase in the probability of winning a game with infinite stakes has an infinite utility. For example, if she wait a year, her probability of winning the game would be approximately .997268; if she waits one more day, the probability would increase to .997275, a difference of only .000007. Yet, even .000007 multiplied by infinity is infinite.

On the other hand, it seems reasonable to suppose the cost of delaying for a day to be finite — a day’s more suffering in hell. So the infinite expected benefit from a delay will always exceed the cost.

This logic might suggest that Ms C should wait forever, but clearly such a strategy would be self defeating: why should she stay forever in a place in order to increase her chances of leaving it? So the question remains: what should Ms C do?

© Edward J. Gracely June 1988