Ross-Littlewood paradox
Ross-Littlewood paradox proper noun: a hypothetical problem dealing with the notion of infinity. Given an empty vase and an infinite supply of balls, an infinite number of steps are performed, such that at each step 10 balls are added to the vase and one ball removed from it. The question is then posed: how many balls are in the vase when the task is finished?
Proper noun
the Ross-Littlewood paradox
- A hypothetical problem dealing with the notion of infinity. Given an empty vase and an infinite supply of balls, an infinite number of steps are performed, such that at each step 10 balls are added to the vase and one ball removed from it. The question is then posed: how many balls are in the vase when the task is finished?
Origin of Ross-Littlewood paradox
The problem was originally described by mathematician John E. Littlewood in his 1953 book Littlewood's Miscellany, and later expanded upon by Sheldon Ross in his 1988 book A First Course in Probability.
Questions about Ross-Littlewood paradox
- What does Ross-Littlewood paradox mean?
- Ross-Littlewood paradox means a hypothetical problem dealing with the notion of infinity. Given an empty vase and an infinite supply of balls, an infinite number of steps are performed, such that at each step 10 balls are added to the vase and one ball removed from it. The question is then posed: how many balls are in the vase when the task is finished?
- What part of speech is Ross-Littlewood paradox?
- Ross-Littlewood paradox is a proper noun.
Words near Ross-Littlewood paradox in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Ross-Littlewood paradox (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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