Martin Kruskal, a mathematician at Rutgers university in New Jersey, has two brothers, both of whom are also mathematicians. When my older brother’s oldest child was five, Kruskal recalls, he argued with another little boy about whether there was a largest number. No doubt they were talking about the counting numbers--1, 2, 3, and so on. My nephew said there wasn’t, and his friend said there was. The next day my nephew went back to his little friend and said, ‘I asked my father about it, and he’s a mathematician, and he says there isn’t any largest number.’ And the other little boy said, ‘Well, I asked my father about it, and he says there is, and he’s a lawyer.’
Kruskal père and fils are right, of course. (So sue them.) Their assertion is easily demonstrated--whenever you think you’ve found the biggest number, just add one to it, and the ...
