gotta watch those lily pads

[plantae]

You may have seen this "stumper" before: if the area of a pond covered by lily pads doubles ever day, and it takes 48 days to cover the entire pond, how long does it take to cover half the pond? It's a popular example in books on the science of thought, to demonstrate how people tend to take mental shortcuts that lead us to incorrect results; the

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[randomdreams]

I've seen a similar absurdity related to illustrate Malthusian catastrophe: if human population continues increasing at the rate it is currently, within 2000 years we'll be expanding from the planet at greater than the speed of light from pressure of new human bodies being created. Obviously there are piles of problems with that scenario but it is evocative.

[randomdreams]

also lily pads freak me out because the last one I picked had a leech on the underside.