Grandi's series | Supertasks | Paradoxes of infinity

Thomson's lamp

Thomson's lamp is a philosophical puzzle based on infinites. It was devised in 1954 by British philosopher James F. Thomson, who used it to analyze the possibility of a supertask, which is the completion of an infinite number of tasks. Consider a lamp with a toggle switch. Flicking the switch once turns the lamp on. Another flick will turn the lamp off. Now suppose that there is a being who is able to perform the following task: starting a timer, he turns the lamp on. At the end of one minute, he turns it off. At the end of another half minute, he turns it on again. At the end of another quarter of a minute, he turns it off. At the next eighth of a minute, he turns it on again, and he continues thus, flicking the switch each time after waiting exactly one-half the time he waited before flicking it previously. The sum of this infinite series of time intervals is exactly two minutes. The following question is then considered: Is the lamp on or off at two minutes? Thomson reasoned that this supertask creates a contradiction: It seems impossible to answer this question. It cannot be on, because I did not ever turn it on without at once turning it off. It cannot be off, because I did in the first place turn it on, and thereafter I never turned it off without at once turning it on. But the lamp must be either on or off. This is a contradiction. (Wikipedia).

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The Carbon Arc Lamp

The first electric light: inventors, history, how it works. From Volta to Sperry the development of the arc lamp. The carbon arc lamp is a HID - High Intensity Discharge lamp which sends an arc through the vaporized carbon formed between two electrodes. Charles Brush and Pavel Yablochkov p

From playlist Lighting Technology

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Spectrum of Hg Lamp / amazing science experiment

Identify the spectral lines of Hg lamp Enjoy the amazing colors! Music: https://www.bensound.com/

From playlist Optics

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The Neon and Argon Lamp

How it works, inventors, development, types of low pressure gas-discharge lamps. The Neon Lamp has occupied a unique niche in modern society since 1915. It was and will likely continue to be the most attractive form of light for certain types of signage. The Neon and Argon Glow Lamps wer

From playlist Lighting Technology

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Supertasks

The Holiday Box has evolved! Now you can support Vsauce, your brain, Alzheimer's research, and other YouTube educators by joining THE CURIOSITY BOX: a seasonal delivery of viral science toys made by Vsauce! A portion of all proceeds goes to Alzheimer's research and our Inquisitive Fellowsh

From playlist Knowledge

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The Nernst Lamp

Nernst Lamp (Nernst Glower) was developed in 1897 as a more efficient replacement for Edison's incandescent lamp. Lighting collector Rick DeLair takes you through all the parts of the Nernst Lamp. See schematics, heater tubes, glower, shifter, ballast. First sold by AEG 1900, and Westingho

From playlist Lighting Technology

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Paradoxes and Supertasks: Zeno, Littlewood-Ross and Thomson's Lamp

Tom Rocks Maths intern Kira Miller discusses the philosophy of 'supertasks' and how they are related to Zeno's Paradox, Thomson's Lamp and the Littlewood-Ross Paradox. Zeno's Paradox looks at convergent infinite sequences in the context of Achilles racing against a tortoise which is given

From playlist Mathstars

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Founder of GE, Born in 1853, Talks About the 1870s & 1880s: Enhanced Video [60 fps]

General Electric Company was formed in 1892, with Elihu Thomson's Thomson-Houston Electric Company merging together with Edison General Electric Company. The interview was filmed on June 21, 1932. Here, Elihu is discussing with one of his former students, E.W Rice, his inventions and work

From playlist Science/Technology From the 1800s

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World's Most Powerful Visible Diode Laser

"The NUBM44 Laser Diode" The World's Most Powerful

From playlist Lasers

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Who is Thomas Edison? || Biography of Thomas Edison

Who was Thomas Alva Edison? He was an American inventor and innovator, who held over a thousand patents for gadgets and life-improving inventions. These included the electric lightbulb, the phonograph, and a large number of improvements to the telegraph. In this video, we trace the story

From playlist It Starts With Literacy

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The Incandescent Lamp

How it works, History, Inventors and Examples. Advantages and disadvantages of the Incandescent Lamp. Light bulb collector Rick DeLair take you on a tour of the most popular form of electric light in history. Inventors: Sir Humphry Davy, Moleyns, Edison, Swan, Coolidge, Langmuir, Tonks, Pi

From playlist Incandescent Light History

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4. Wave-particle duality of matter, Schrödinger equation

MIT 5.111 Principles of Chemical Science, Fall 2008 View the complete course: http://ocw.mit.edu/5-111F08 Instructor: Catherine Drennan, Elizabeth Vogel Taylor License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA More information at http://ocw.mit.edu/terms More courses at http://ocw.mit.edu

From playlist MIT 5.111 Principles of Chemical Science, Fall 2008

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The Induction Lamp - Types and Inventors

The Induction Lamp creates a discharge in a tube or bulb without having electrodes inside the vessel. It uses electromagnetic fields to excite a filling. There are two kinds of fluorescent induction lamps: internal and external. Johann Hittorf first developed the lamp in 1884. Nikola Tesla

From playlist Lighting Technology

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The Fluorescent Lamp - How it Works - Inventors

Introduction to fluorescent lamps: How it works, inventors, animations. The fluorescent light is the most prolific type of lamp in the world. For indoor lighting it remains the lowest cost efficient light source. Inventors include George Inman, Richard Thayer, Edmund Germer, Albert Hull, E

From playlist Fluorescent Lamp Videos

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Re-Inventing The Carbon Lightbulb

Here we explore the making of the first light bulbs invented by Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan. Check out my sponsor Brilliant for a great way to learn math, science, and computer science: https://www.Brilliant.org/NightHawk I've transcribed Edison's first electric lamp patent into a singl

From playlist Science & Experiments

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One minus one plus one minus one - Numberphile

Discussing the brain-bending Grandi's Series and Thomson's Lamp - featuring Dr James Grime. More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓ A little bit of extra footage from the very end of this interview at: http://youtu.be/TgGi1ls1X-0 (on Brady's own channel) See our Zeno's Paradox v

From playlist James Grime on Numberphile

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Quantum Mechanics 4a - Atoms I

So far we have developed the basic concepts of Quantum Mechanics in the context of light and photons. Now we begin to explore the atom. By the end of the 19th century it had been established that an atom emits light at a characteristic set of frequencies and wavelengths forming it's "emiss

From playlist Quantum Mechanics

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Lec 4 | MIT 5.60 Thermodynamics & Kinetics, Spring 2008

Lecture 04: Enthalpy. View the complete course at: http://ocw.mit.edu/5-60S08 License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA More information at http://ocw.mit.edu/terms More courses at http://ocw.mit.edu

From playlist MIT 5.60 Thermodynamics & Kinetics, Spring 2008

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Man Born in 1853 Talks About Childhood in the 1860s- Enhanced Video & Audio [60 fps]

This is Elihu Thomson, engineer and inventor born on March 29, 1853. In this video, he talks about some childhood memories while living in Philadelphia in the 1860s. It was filmed on June 21, 1932. This video has been colorized, speed-adjusted and restored with audio enhancements for cla

From playlist Science/Technology From the 1800s

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Fighting Firedamp - The Lamp that Saved 1,000 Lives

With a beautiful, explosive experiment, Andy demonstrates how Humphry Davy's simple invention saved hundreds of lives from firedamp. Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe Watch Professor Frank James give a lecture on the detailed history of the Davy lamp and the T

From playlist Tales from the Prep Room

Related pages

Limit of a sequence | Ross–Littlewood paradox | Series (mathematics) | Zeno's paradoxes | Integer | Grandi's series | Supertask | Sequence | Zeno machine | Cesàro summation