One particularly nice afternoon, several students were trapped in a classroom listening to a monotonous lecture by a professor the local college. After over two hours of mind-numbing discourse, one student stood up in despair and noted that she had a book with every word of the lecture in it and that others in the class also had the same book, so the professor should end the oration immediately. The professor was taken aback and asked her to prove it and she would stop at once. The student produced the proof. How?
The student held up a dictionary.
To prove that she had a book with every word of the lecture, the student could have shown a bookmark placed in a specific spot in the book. Here's how:
1. First, the student could have asked the professor to select a random page from the book.
2. Once the professor selected a page, the student would flip to that page in her book.
3. The student would request that the professor choose a specific paragraph or sentence on that page.
4. If the book had every word of the lecture, the student could have readily found the selected paragraph or sentence and showed it to the professor.
5. This would demonstrate that the book contained the entire lecture, proving the student's claim.
By following these steps, the student provided a concrete proof that the book contained every word of the lecture.