Tuesday 29 December 2009

The Infinite Meat Pie

This subject came up a some years ago among me and my friends. It was the concept of the infinite meat pie. The claim was that if an infinite meat pie existed, everything in the universe would be part of this meat pie. This could be true, but the concept of infiniteness doesn't require it, as we soon shall see.

First, I'd like to point out that since this is a thought experiment based on the pie already existing, I have no explanation on how this meat pie came into existence. Maybe it was created in the Big Bake, or maybe it has just always existed. Also this meat pie would have an infinite mass and that's another discussion altogether.

Lets get back to the claim of the infinite meat pie being everything. If this infinite meat pie has expanded continuously and infinitely in all directions it would indeed be everything. Imagine this though--a finite piece of the meat pie is removed. The pie would still be infinite in all directions, but there would be a finite hole in it somewhere where other things could exist. There could even be an infinite number of these holes as long as they leave pie between them and the pie will still remain infinite. There's also the possibility of having a meat pie that's only infinite in some directions. If you are near the crust of the pie you could be looking in a direction of endless meat pie but if you turn around the rest of the universe would spread out infinitely in the other direction. Since there is an infinite number of directions to choose from this also means that there could be an infinite number of infinite meat pies spreading out in different directions and there could still be a direction without meat pie.

By proof of contradiction we have determined that the claim doesn't hold.

The pie is a lie!

Monday 28 December 2009

Prelude

Welcome to a new blog! I thought I'd start this one off with a small introduction to what the blog is about and where the name came from and then launch it from there.

So what's the deal with this blog about everything and nothing? Well, the idea initially came from a friend and former colleague of mine who often discusses different problems he encounters while developing. He told me jokingly that I should gather all questions I got and then publish a book with the discussions and answers. That triggered something within me and after some thinking this blog was created in my mind.

This will not be one of the this-is-what-I-did-today blogs that I hate so much. Neither will it be a blog about a certain subject. You might say it's a kind of mix between those two, where the subject is decided based on things that come up in everyday discussions or questions asked that I think worthy of mentioning. This means that some articles might be about programming, while others might be discussions about philosofical questions. It might also mean that some posts will give an exact answer while other posts will just have some reasoning and then leave you, as a reader, to decide what your thruth will be.

42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and therefore I thought it fitting for this number to be included in the title of the blog. I will never be able to uncover the entire truth about everything, so this blog will be a vague reflection of the number 42, which explains the name Reflection 42.

Finally, I'd just like to add that I have no way of knowing where this blog will take off to. It might become a rather one-sided blog or it might become too diverse. In the end it's all about having fun, and if you get bored you can just leave :)