Posted by Denis Borris on October 30, 2002 at 23:44:58:
MathBard takes a flight and checks 4 bags; including his 4 bags,
there are N bags of checked luggage. MathBard is now standing at
baggage claim waiting for his luggage to appear on the carousel;
whoops, a bag falls from up there: it's one of MathBard's!
The luggage starts carouselling down;
MathBard, who somehow knows the total number of bags, says to himself:
"Good; I now EXPECT to count 500 less until my last bag appears" .
No lost luggage; MathBard's 3 other bags are guaranteed to arrive.
And yes, MathBard's 3rd bag does get counted.
What is N ?