What If machine weirdness

[on:]

in Anthology of Interest I, the story is that the professor is watching a What-If machine's telling him what would happen if he invented the finglonger.
In that story, the professor tells Fry that the stories the What-If machine generates aren't "very long".  About 7 minutes actually.
The finglonger invention story is about 21 minutes long!
Why would the What-If machine generate a story that contained a What-If machine that generated stories 1/3 the length of the What-If machine that generated it?

[Reply #1 on:]

He only tells him that it makes a computer simulation of the results, never mentions their duration.

[Reply #2 on:]

well maybe the invention of the finglonger would trigger a chain of events that led to the what if machine's stories becoming longer

[Reply #3 on:]

The truth is that many scenes had to be cut for length.

[Reply #4 on:]

 

Originally posted by JDHannan:

Why would the What-If machine generate a story that contained a What-If machine that generated stories 1/3 the length of the What-If machine that generated it?

Because it's not worth the gold it's made of.

[Reply #5 on:]

So, let me get this straight.  The Professor invented the Fing-Longer and we got to see 7 mintue episodes of 'What-If'.  And the Fing-longer was 21 inches long so it made a 21-mintue story.  Makes sense. 

What I like to know is, did the Professor ever invent the fing-longer eventually?

[Reply #6 on:]

Yes, some time before The Bird-bot Of Icecatraz

[Reply #7 on:]

I think the Professor was impressed by the physical length of the finglonger, not by the length of its duration.

 

[Reply #8 on:]

 

Originally posted by KurtPikachu2001:
What I like to know is, did the Professor ever invent the fing-longer eventually?

No, he just bought one.

[Reply #9 on:]

Why would the What-If machine generate a story that contained a What-If machine that generated stories 1/3 the length of the What-If machine that generated it?

Otherwise the episode would be a hour long, but then it would have to be 3 hours long, but then it would have to be 9 hours long etc.
Or, uh...my head hurts....