At first I was like “Applause for what?”. Then I got it. More applause.
Perhaps a better example of infinite fractions is the old math story that the girls and boys are aligned at opposite ends of a classroom. The math teacher instructs the boys to walk half way across the room, then half again, and again…and so one. They can kiss the girl when they reach the other side of the room. The boy mathematicians know they will never, ever get there…for the distance between the boy and girl can be continuously divided in half - ad infinitum. (As for the other boys? They enjoy a smooch! So much for math theory!)
Well, the math boys and girls who studied calculus and know more than Zeno did do get to kiss, because they know that if an infinite series converges to a limit it is equal to that limit.
So they take it…
to the limit…
ONE MORE TIII-IIIME!
Put another way: supposing the boys simply walk right up and kiss the girls. In the process of doing so, they will have walked halfway to the girls, and after that will have walked halfway through the remaining distance, and so on. This will have satisfied all the teacher’s prerequisites and no mathematician could complain. So why wouldn’t the math kids ever get there?
On the other hand, if the teacher imposes conditions about the speed at which they carry out these prerequisite tasks…
So, we know for a fact that we are living in the very early stage of this universe? We’ve barely popped the champagne on New Year’s Day, so to speak? Wow, I really had no idea. If that’s so, then the idea that “the universe is very large, so there must be other life forms out there” should be extended to “the 15 billion years of the universe so far is just the beginning, so there WILL BE many, many MORE life forms out there in the future.”
(If this is too much of a hijack, I can start a new thread. But I don’t think it needs to be. Just a simple “yes” or no" answer will do.)
(And, responding to Exapno’s thoughts about considering one’s audience in these sorts of threads: IMHO, the best GQ threads are a well-leavened MIX of the esoteric and the straightforward. I love learning the basic answer, AND being afforded a glimpse into the specialist’s world – and I’d hate to have to give up EITHER treat.)
The black hole would take 10 to the 97 years to disappear–if the universe were to give it that much time. But the universe might not last that long.
“WOULD take”…okay, now that makes more sense. Thanks.
Also note that even if the Universe lasts forever (which is our current best guess), all of the interesting stuff will be long over by the time the largest black holes disappear.
You mean the SDMB will come to an end before the universe does? I’d better make the most of it, then.
That’s a very electromagnetic-centric view. Do we know for certain that it’s impossible to build logic gates out of black holes?
I’m only half kidding. 
It’s taking longer than you thought, but not THAT much longer! 
I can only imagine any such logic would be non-restoring.
I’m reminded of some idea I once read of computers living near the final heat death of the Universe. The essential point was that they’d slow down their thinking to conserve energy, making it so they’d asymptotically approach death at roughly the same rate the Universe itself did.
And just before the computers stopped completely, they would discover that the answer to the Ultimate Question was 42. And then they would say, “Let there be light,” and the universe were be restarted.
Wendell, I’m from the multiversal continuity police, and I’m here to arrest you for violating contextual boundaries without a passport.