my mathematical namesake

Posted on Monday 16 October 2006

I wish this were actually named after me.

The Berry paradox is the apparent contradiction that arises from expressions such as the following:

The smallest positive integer not definable in under eleven words.

You see, it’s a paradox, cause the statement itself, which defines said integer, is only ten words long! Get it? Hmmm. This reminds me of Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem and, of course, a very long, amazing book I once read.

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