equal, then the will cannot break the deadlock; all it can do is suspend judgement until the circumstances change, and the right course of action is clear.
in doubt between two stacks of hay, and starving to death. The like would never happen to General Cass; place the stacks a thousand miles apart, he would stand stock still midway between them, and eat them both at once, and the green grass along the line would be apt to suffer some too at the same time." -- insulting Democratic presidential candidate, Lewis Cass, in 1848 Abraham Lincoln 1809 – 1865
at time t = 0, such that x falls along the line joining two equal bails of hay at positions 0 and 1, where 0 < x < 1 [given] 2. Let A t (x) denotes the position of the ass at time t, as a function of time over x 3. t ≥ 0: A t (0) = 0; A t (1) = 1; {x ∈ ℝ | 0 < x < 1} [continuity] 4. Since A t (0) = 0 and A t (1) = 1 there must be a finite range of values of x for which 0 < A t (x) < 1 Q.E.D
at time t = 0, such that x falls along the line joining two equal bails of hay at positions 0 and 1, where 0 < x < 1 [given] 2. Let A t (x) denotes the position of the ass at time t, as a function of time over x 3. t ≥ 0: A t (0) = 0; A t (1) = 1; {x ∈ ℝ | 0 < x < 1} [continuity] 4. Since A t (0) = 0 and A t (1) = 1 there must be a finite range of values of x for which 0 < A t (x) < 1 Q.E.D
and Lamport [11] that the glitch phenomenon is inherent in arbiter circuits. These proofs are based on a continuous model of asynchronous circuits. In fact, Palais and Lamport state that a proof of this result must be based on a continuous model. We show otherwise; that is, we give a proof of the unavoidability of the glitch phenomenon that is based on a discrete circuit model.
a fundamental law of physics, not a mathematical theorem. For example, Anderson and Gouda [1] proved that a bounded-time arbiter cannot be constructed from certain kinds of components, but their proof offers no insight into why the quantum- mechanical arbiter described in [9] doesn’t work. We take the nonexistence of a bounded-time arbiter as an axiom.
then any measurement performed in a bounded length of time that has a nonzero probability of yielding a value in a neighborhood of x and a nonzero probability of yielding a value in a neighborhood of z must also have a nonzero probability of yielding a value in a neighborhood of y