[extropy-chat] extropian book puzzle

[spike]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Damien Broderick
> Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 5:11 PM
> To: ExI chat list
> Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] extropian book puzzle
> 
> At 04:40 PM 12/28/2006 -0800, spike wrote:
> 
> >How far did the wretched beast travel?
> 
> How long is this contemptible worm with good taste?
> 
> What is a "straight lone hole"? How different is it to a gay
> gregarious hole? Let me rephrase that.
> 
> Damien Broderick

Damien has evidently caught the other gotcha, altho he is too modest to
spell out the solution.  So I will.

The original problem statement said that the infernal book-devouring beast
made a straight lone hole from Rand's front cover to Drexler's back cover,
which turned out to be equivalent to the entire thickness of Dr. Broderick's
volume only.  Putting aside the bookworm's excellent taste in literature,
note that the problem statement does not require that the centerline of the
straight hole be perpendicular to the covers of the book.  So the accursed
beast might have actually devoured a hole from corner to opposite corner of
my prized autographed first edition (damn that thysanura lepismatidae).  

Since the Doherty hardback edition measures 6 inches wide by 8 inches tall,
the hole could be over ten inches long, the square root of 101.

Gotcha.

{8-]

spike