Wikipedia:Reference desk/Mathematics/unsolved
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This page lists questions asked at the mathematics reference desk which were not answered by archival time.
From archiving 17 Dec 2005
[edit]- Archived [1]
Source for Hilbert's Hotel
[edit]Repeating a question I've asked on Talk:Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel:
- No source is given for the claim that this story is due to Hilbert. AFAIK the earliest source for this problem is:
- George Gamow, 1947. One, two, three... Infinity. New York: Dover.
- where on p17 he claims it is an example Hilbert gave in a lecture, claiming in turn to have got this story from an R. Courant who was working on a then unpublished book to be called "The Complete Collection of Hilbert Stories". I'm guessing this has to be Richard Courant, who would be a good source for this attribution, but as it stands I see only an attribuition of an attribution... Does anyone have a better source, or know anymore about the manuscript Gamow talked about?
I'm guessing this page has a wider readership, hence the repost. --- Charles Stewart 17:56, 6 December 2005 (UTC)