since, however many terms we take, we are always short of 4 inches by an amount equal to the last term taken.
Three answers have been received—but only two seem to me worthy of honours.
Tympanum says that the statement about the stick "is merely a blind, to which the old answer may well be applied, solvitur ambulando, or rather mergendo." I trust Tympanum will not test this in his own person, by taking the place of the man in Balbus' Essay! He would infallibly be drowned.
Old King Cole rightly points out that the series, 2, 1, &c., is a decreasing Geometrical Progression: while Vindex rightly identifies the fallacy as that of "Achilles and the Tortoise."
CLASS LIST.
| i. | |
| Old King Cole. | Vindex. |
§ 3. The Garden.
Problem.—An oblong garden, half a yard longer than wide, consists entirely of a gravel-walk, spirally arranged, a yard wide and 3,630 yards long. Find the dimensions of the garden.
