Wiki143:Reference desk/Mathematics/unsolved

This page lists questions asked at the mathematics reference desk which were not answered by archival time.

From archiving 17 Dec 2005

Archived [1]

Source for Hilbert's Hotel

Repeating a question I've asked on Talk:Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel:

No source is given for the claim that this story is due to Hilbert. AFAIK the earliest source for this problem is:

• George Gamow, 1947. One, two, three... Infinity. New York: Dover.

where on p17 he claims it is an example Hilbert gave in a lecture, claiming in turn to have got this story from an R. Courant who was working on a then unpublished book to be called "The Complete Collection of Hilbert Stories". I'm guessing this has to be Richard Courant, who would be a good source for this attribution, but as it stands I see only an attribuition of an attribution... Does anyone have a better source, or know anymore about the manuscript Gamow talked about?

I'm guessing this page has a wider readership, hence the repost. --- Charles Stewart 17:56, 6 December 2005 (UTC)