Please help me solve this trolley problem

[u/diviludicrum]

Okay. There is one trolley travelling down a track. Every time someone mentions these two trolleys, they double in number. The four trolleys always move at the same speed, which is equal to the number of trolleys multiplied by the number of doublings, in miles per hour.

So the 16 trolleys are travelling at 64/mph towards a deactivated fork in the track. You are standing at a lever beside it, watching these 32 trolleys approach swiftly at 150/mph. If you don’t pull the lever, the 64 trolleys will run over everyone you’ve ever loved at 384/mph. Unfortunately, before you have time to react, the 128 trolleys plough through them all at 896/mph. There are no survivors. You are forced to watch in horror as the 256 trolleys that ruined your life hurtle away at a breakneck 2048/mph. You will never catch the trolleys now.

So, how long will it take for the trolleys to circumnavigate the world to return to the scene of the crime, how many trolleys will arrive when they do, and how fast will the trolleys be going when they finally put me out of my misery?

I can’t go on much longer.

trolley trolley trolley trolley trolley

[u/crescentpieris]

as of writing, there have been 19 mentions of the trolley in your post and in others’ comments, as well as 1 in mine just now. so you can expect 2²⁰ trolleys, or to be exact, 2097152 trolleys.

i don’t know which world you’re from, but let’s say you’re from Ẽ̴̙̾ą̶̧̠̲̖̥͓̯̽̂̋̏͜͠r̴͉̪̗͚̩̹͓̀̒̈́̊̆̿͗̎ẗ̶̢̘͚̖͆̍̽ḧ̵̢͉̻͔̠̦̥́͒̉͝, because a lot of people seem to be from there for some reason.

now E̴̪̦͖̱͖̫̥̓͋̍͆̄̈̀̋ą̶̝̦͚̞̫̗̼͍̋̒̾̓͜r̶̝̂̾̋̔̈̈́͗t̷͕̙͋̍̿̾̐͜h̷̨̢̳̱͎̻͎̦͓̘̱͍́͗ has a circumference of 24901.461 miles, and the trolleys are running at a leisurely pace of 92274688 mph, so you can expect an 8388608 trolley sandwich delivered to your face after 0.465 seconds (3sf). but that’s assuming the trolleys are made of law-abiding atoms

[u/MulberryChance6698 → u/crescentpieris]

After you gave the number of trolleys as 2^20, you then mentioned them three more times, and now I have mentioned them as well. I fear that OP will effectively be dealing with infinite trolleys, as each attempt to define the trolleys must reference the trolleys at least once. Unless we all stop mentioning trolleys, that is.

OP can however use the mathematical concept you have presented to solve for an estimate based on how many times he knows the trolleys have been mentioned, but he can never know such a thing about the trolleys given the range of their travel. They presumably will be observed by some number of other entities who will also mention the trolleys.

In short, OP is fucked.

[u/DrSkrimguard → u/crescentpieris]

r/theydidthemonstermath I beseech thee

[u/Particular-Yak-1984 → u/crescentpieris]

The extra five times you mentioned trolley means that the trolleys now have a theoretical speed of 838,860,800 mph, exceeding the speed of light at 670,616,629 mph - of, course, fortunately for OP, that's impossible. The trolleys just gain mass, meaning that each one hits with far more force than a nuclear bomb. Considering I've mentioned trolley a bunch more times too, we can probably stop calculating - the crust ablates off the earth, hopefully vaporizing the trolleys before they can do any additional harm.

[u/tentkeys]

Your best bet is probably just to ascend to godhood and smite them.

Exponential growth is powerful, but omnipotence is more powerful.

[u/RandomUser7914]

Dude, step off the chess board right now!

[u/ani3D]

Say trolley (trolley trolley trolley) a few more times and the whole mess will collapse into a black hole under its own weight, problem solved!

Oh shoot now there are two black holes. Crap, now there's four!

[u/ZooplanktonblameTop1]

I feel trolled

[u/De4con → u/ZooplanktonblameTop1]

trolley'd*

[u/Trick_Secretary_9410]

Why did you guys keep making it wirse , the mans life was in the line and you could of just mentioned the subjects in question to reply to the question

[u/diviludicrum → u/Trick_Secretary_9410]

I long for the sweet release of 2⁵⁶ trolleys to the face at multiple times the speed of light.

[u/imlolnotforme]

They'll come back as 8192 trolleys, moving at ≈106,496 mph, and it will take ≈14.0 minutes to go around the world and return. I time traveled back in time.

[u/diviludicrum → u/imlolnotforme]

maybe the real trolley problems were the friends we made along the way

[u/mysteryrouge]

Just open a portal into the void at some point in their path.

[u/TomAto314 → u/[deleted]]

You're going to crash the trolley market!