One of the more interesting bits in the history of mathematics is Zeno’s Paradox. Zeno’s Paradox goes a long way in demonstrating the infinitude of the real numbers.

It can be stated as follows: In order to walk from one end of the room to another, I must first cover half of the distance and walk to middle of the room, but before I can walk to the middle of the room, I must cover half of the distance to the middle and walk one-quarter of the room, but before I walk one-quarter of the room, I must walk half that and walk 1/8 of the room, and so on.

As I can divide by two ad infinitum, I must execute an infinite number of tasks in order to walk across the room, thus it is not possible.

Furthermore, because the set { …, 1/64, 1/32, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1 } has no first term, I am not even able to begin the task of walking the length of the room.

Now, what we can extrapolate from this is pretty cool. Zeno shows that between 0 and 1 there are infinitely many numbers. But 0 and 1 were arbitrary end points. Suppose, we wish to go from 1/4 to 1/2, we must first find ourselves at 3/8. Hence, we can use this same construction and show that there are infinitely many real numbers between 1/4 and 1/2. In fact, between any two number (no matter which numbers we choose) there are infinitely many numbers that fall between them.

I was reminded of Zeno this evening as I was browsing MIT OpenCourseWare. I found a course that I am going to teach myself, in fact, the two text are on their way from Amazon. The title of the course is Paradoxes & Infinity, and Zeno’s Paradox is the first topic discussed.

The lecturer gets the course off to a fun start by presenting the perfect hangover cure (PDF), theoretically speaking. It is based on Zeno’s Paradox, and much like how you can never get from one end of your room to the other, this mathematician explains how you never need to feel the effects of a hangover.

I’ll drink to that.

When I heard the idea of Ignite Columbus I was rather intrigued. The idea is simple: people gather, any of which can sign up beforehand to speak. These speakers get 20 slides and 5 minutes to talk about any subject they want, anything at all. So simple, yet so cool. There are many interesting people out there that are passionate about all sorts of thing, most of which I know nothing about. What a great way to share in the knowledge of others.

But ANYTHING? Really? What if some dullard gets up there are puts everyone to sleep? Not a problem, remember, they only get five minutes and then they’re done. So, even if there is a topic that annoys you, in another 4 minutes and change it’s over.

So, in theory it’s cool, but after attending Ignite Columbus 2 last night, I now have very mixed opinions.

The event was hosted by Lextant in their pretty swanky space on the 6th floor of The Smith Brothers Hardware building. EdgeCase, another event sponsor, provided pizza and beer and there was a good crowd of good people. And, I must say, I thought that Dan Rockwell of Lextant did a excellent job as the M.C.

However, after hearing some of the talks I was a bit disappointed. The majority of the field of speakers thought it would be a good idea to use their five minutes to pitch their product or service. I hate to say it, but this sort of ruined my night. I did not commit two hours of my night to listen to a bunch of sales pitches. NO, I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR HOW YOUR BUSINESS CONSULTANCY CAN HELP MY SMALL BUSINESS IN A BAD ECONOMY.

Now, that being said, not all were bad and there were a few that I really enjoyed. Here are three presentations that I felt really fulfilled the spirit of the event:

• Laura Rees (@LaRees), freelance writer, spoke about springboards to ideas and how something as inane as cheese sauce can lead to a variety of good ideas,
• Brian Link (@blinkdaddy), former exec at Digg, spoke about the concept of agile developemnt,
• And, what I would vote as the best presentation of the night came from Joshua Scott, who I have not had the pleasure of meeting. He talked about the S-curve in business. A topic that an entrepreneur sans business degree truly appreciates.

So, will I go to the next Ignite Columbus. Yeah, I will. But this time, I just might prepare a 5 minute talk of my own and I can promise you it won’t have anything to do with my business.

I cannot sleep at all right now. It’s probably because I am so excited about tomorrow. Tomorrow marks another dynamIt Holiday Dinner, the 4th annual. And to me, it is the best night of the year.

Donning our finest suits, each member of the dynamIt team and a date attend the Holiday Party held each year at the original Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse in Upper Arlington.

It is always a wonderful evening. Great food, great drink, great conversation, but most of all great company…who could ask for more?