Solved cryptogram
Add a half, a quarter, an eighth and onward forever, and the total is exactly one. Not nearly.
Mathematics Facts, sourced to Wolfram MathWorld.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 72 letters over 20 different ones, graded hard.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
Zeno used this to argue that motion is impossible: to cross a room you must first cross half of it, then half of what is left, endlessly. The resolution is that an unending list of steps can have a finite total, provided the steps shrink fast enough. Halving does. The sum of a geometric series with a ratio below one is a plain division, and here it gives one on the nose rather than something creeping up on it.
The claim comes from Wolfram MathWorld.
- SourceWolfram MathWorld
- CollectionMathematics Facts
- Difficultyhard
- Length72 letters, 20 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Wolfram MathWorldmedium, 74 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldmedium, 75 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldeasy, 70 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldhard, 74 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Wolfram MathWorldhard, 69 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldhard, 73 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldhard, 79 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldhard, 72 letters