Hibert's Hotel: Hilbert's Infinity of Rooms

Unending BE - episode 140660

"It'll never work," said DJ, after a minute. "Not unless you want to renumber all the rooms." Pause. "Hilbert's floor-plan made sense, because he remembered the numbering of the Author Suites. They started on the 20th floor, so according to his original plan, all the rooms started with '20--'. That made sense. But I've gotten misdirected complaints today from people in the HOTEL, from Rooms like #404, and #666. We forgot about the duplicate numbers! So the Author Suites are getting mixed up with the Hotel Rooms with the same number!"

She pointed to Adama's schematic. "See? Over here, by the hotel registration, the elevators stop at every hotel floor, then they go on to stop at the floors containing the Author Suites. But HERE--" She pointed to the other end of the map "--is the Bar and Grill. The elevators over HERE are express, straight to the floors of the Author Suites, without stopping at each Hotel floor. No wonder there's confusion, somebody started numbering the floors differently next to each elevator bank. Over by the Bar and Grill elevators, the floor numbers start at, well, zero, so the offices start with 0--. But over by the Hotel, the elevators stop at 2, 3, 4, and then go up to 2, 3, 4, again! We've been sending Author stuff to Hotel Rooms and vice versa. It'll take forever to sort out!"

"Not necessarily!" said Hilbert, poking his head through. "MarkT gets the honor of the first Author Suite, #2000, because of his importance. Same with Adama, who gets #2001. All the rest of the Author Suites, just put 20-- in front,then they won't get confused with the hotel room with the same number. And the elevator by the Bar and Grill is still an express for the Authors! Oh, and floor 29 is the Bullpen for the one-off Authors. Just installed. Pool tables, pinball machines, TV lounge, snack bar, saloon, but no facilities for overnight stays." Hilbert smiled and left.

  1. *"The man makes a good case. Just add 20-- to the front of all the present Author Suite numbers."
  2. *"I have a better idea that will be less trouble."
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F-Cup Fitzgerald

Thu Apr 26 16:12:40 2001