World's best suggested paradox

V1C3M4N

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Infinity is a paradox, because nothing can be infinite. The Universe and time are not infinite, even though scientists keep claiming so, I can prove that the Universe and time are is not infinite through three aguments using two methods, one logic, the other physics.

Ask me if you want proof.

Side note, if/when the ice caps melt, sea levels will not rise. Tell that to the hippies.
 

IMakeIce

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Dec 21, 2010
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V1C3M4N said:
Squidden said:
How long will it take you to cross a crosswalk if with each step, you cut the distance you walked with the prior step by half?
How big is the first step, not really a paradox
I think we can assume that it's half the distance of the crosswalk. If you really want to nitpick at things like _that_ and try to take the entire post absolutely face value, then we also either have to assume that he's never stood anywhere but at the edge of the sidewalk, or we have to know the distance he took with the step that _brought_ him to the edge of the sidewalk. It was poorly worded, but I'm sure you can figure out what the intent behind the post was.

As someone has posted before: Dictionary.com says:

par·a·dox   
[par-uh-doks] Show IPA
?noun
1.
a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
2.
a self-contradictory and false proposition.
3.
any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.
4.
an opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion.

By number 3 (or possibly number 4) this problem _is_ a paradox, it's easier to see why if it's worded thus: "Why, if the distance between two objects can be infinitely halved, can anyone reach any object? (Crosswalk scenario here)." It is a situation that is apparently contradictory in nature. People can obviously reach objects any distance from them given time, but the statement is also true, the distance between the person and the object _can_ always be halved (unless the distance is 0).


Edit:
V1C3M4N said:
Infinity is a paradox, because nothing can be infinite. The Universe and time are not infinite, even though scientists keep claiming so, I can prove that the Universe and time are is not infinite through three aguments using two methods, one logic, the other physics.

Ask me if you want proof.

Side note, if/when the ice caps melt, sea levels will not rise. Tell that to the hippies.
The number of distinct points between the numbers 1 and 0 _is_ infinite.

Infinity does "exist" and there most certainly are infinite numbers of "things" in this universe. Physical things maybe not, but things in the loosest definition of things yes.
 

Jewrean

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Squidden said:
How long will it take you to cross a crosswalk if with each step, you cut the distance you walked with the prior step by half?
This is actually doable providing your first step is more than 2/3 of the distance. :p
 

friedtoast88

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Jun 30, 2010
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I'm not sure if this is a paradox, but it's still a cool little idea. I just hope I wasn't ninja'd.

A man is convicted of murder and the judge sentences him to death on a Friday night. (He is sentenced on the Friday night.) The judge tells him that he will be executed at noon on one of the days next work week. (Mon-Fri). He also tells the man that the day of his execution will be a surprise to him until the executioner fetches him from his cell. The man goes to his cell in prison and after much thought he realizes that next Friday could not be the day he will die because the judge told him it would be a surprise and if the executioner doesn't come to get him on Thursday at noon then by process of elimination it must be Friday. This would ruin the idea of his death date being a surprise. This brings the possibility of his death being between Monday and Thursday. So by the same logic he rules out each day of the next week. Content in his conclusion he goes to sleep believing that he will not die. Wednesday rolls around and the executioner arrives at the man's cell to kill him. The man is surprised. everything the judge said has come true.
 

Laze

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Geekosaurus said:
someonehairy-ish said:
Geekosaurus said:
You can't divide by zero. Yes you fucking can. I have two apples, I don't divide by anything so I still have two apples. The mathematicians just don't want to admit defeat.
-snip-
Think of this this way. When you divide by 2 you divide something into 2 equal pieces. When you divide by 1 you divide into one piece. Dividing by zero divides it into zero pieces, or no pieces at all. Therefore, 2 apples divided by 2 will equal 1. 2 apples divided by 1 equals 2. 2 apples divided by zero equals zero apples.

Munch.
Close but actually 2 apples divided by zero equally infinitely many apples. Easy to see by the following:

2/1 = 2
2/0.1 = 20
2/0.01 = 200
...
2/1E-10 = 2E10 (20 billion)
2/0 = infinity (in the limit)

reyttm4 said:
The paradox of motion named 'Achilles And The Tortoise"

In the paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise, Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. Achilles allows the tortoise a head start of 100 metres. If we suppose that each racer starts running at some constant speed (one very fast and one very slow), then after some finite time, Achilles will have run 100 metres, bringing him to the tortoise's starting point. During this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter distance, say, 10 metres. It will then take Achilles some further time to run that distance, by which time the tortoise will have advanced farther; and then more time still to reach this third point, while the tortoise moves ahead. Thus, whenever Achilles reaches somewhere the tortoise has been, he still has farther to go. Therefore, because there are an infinite number of points Achilles must reach where the tortoise has already been, he can never overtake the tortoise
The paradox here is basically a false phrasing because it assumes that Achilles and the tortoise are points instead of 3D shapes, which would mean that Achilles can not occupy more than one "point" at once (in reality, we all occupy infinitely points in space by the definition of a point mathematically)

Also, even assuming that Achilles and the turtle are both points - if there are infinitely many points where the tortoise has been, and the tortoise's current location is defined as a point, the tortoise's interval of motion must be of zero (approaching in a limit) size, and so must Achilles', so neither are moving at all in any finite number of steps. So looking at a finite number of steps from either of them is futile because everything is infinities and you need calculus.

It's really a number line problem where instead of moving in intervals of 1 or 0.5 or whatever where there are a finite number of points with than interval between them on a certain segment of the line, the marker moves by an infinitesimal interval approaching zero so there are infinitely many points with that interval between them on ANY nonzero-length segment of the line. But such a point could only move a distance using an infinite number of steps, so the question becomes moot.

Short version: On a normal number line, when a value moves from 1 to 2, it has passed infinitely many points of infinitesimal size because the set of real numbers is infinite (uncountably). So anything that moves in steps of "points" like the claimed tortoise is actually moving zero distance at each step, and there are (in the limit) infinitely many places that they have been even though they're moving zero (in the limit) distance at each step.
 
May 5, 2010
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Wow. I was just watching the Big Bang Theory, and I have to say...I had no idea that people like that actually existed. Apparently they've all been on the Escapist.
 

Astoria

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Scobie said:
Curry's Paradox [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry%27s_paradox], a logical paradox that allows you to "prove" any given statement:

If this sentence is true then Santa Claus exists.
If this sentence is true then the sky is green.
If this sentence is true then God exists.
If this sentence is true then God does not exist.

All of those sentences are true. It's great.
I get it :D....I think.

OP Umm I read some really good ones a while ago but I cant remember any!

As for the unstoppable force hitting an inmoveable object that can't happen. If a force is truely unstoppable then there is no object it can't move. If an object is truely unmoveable then it can stop any force. So only one can exist.
 

Laze

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friedtoast88 said:
I'm not sure if this is a paradox, but it's still a cool little idea. I just hope I wasn't ninja'd.

A man is convicted of murder and the judge sentences him to death on a Friday night. (He is sentenced on the Friday night.) The judge tells him that he will be executed at noon on one of the days next work week. (Mon-Fri). He also tells the man that the day of his execution will be a surprise to him until the executioner fetches him from his cell. The man goes to his cell in prison and after much thought he realizes that next Friday could not be the day he will die because the judge told him it would be a surprise and if the executioner doesn't come to get him on Thursday at noon then by process of elimination it must be Friday. This would ruin the idea of his death date being a surprise. This brings the possibility of his death being between Monday and Thursday. So by the same logic he rules out each day of the next week. Content in his conclusion he goes to sleep believing that he will not die. Wednesday rolls around and the executioner arrives at the man's cell to kill him. The man is surprised. everything the judge said has come true.
The is a good one. The paradox lies in the question of how the man can be surprised. By the man's logic, he can only be surprised if he is executed on a day such that no future day will bring an execution without surprise. That day doesn't exist but the closest day to it would be Monday. The man has overlooked the fact that because his logic rules out all of the days of the week as possibilities, an execution on ANY day can now surprise him!
 

grimsprice

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Renamedsin said:
Blah blah blah unstoppable stuff and immovable object stuff.
The object would have to contain infinite mass in order for a given force to not move it at all. If an object existed with infinite mass, the entire universe would implode instantly due to its infinite gravity.

If you magically stabalize the universe, and then fling another object at it that cannot be stopped (which would again be something with infinite energy) the two would collide and obliterate each other. The resulting release of energy would slowly disintegrate the whole universe.
 

The Big Eye

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Aug 19, 2009
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Either there is hope for humanity or there isn't. And yet, we live in a world that is home to both Ke$ha and Stephen Colbert. How can this be explained?
 

bl4ckh4wk64

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Jun 11, 2010
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Father Time said:
I say it again what's

1. The
2. Smallest
3. Number
4. Not
5. Nameable
6. In
7. Under
8. Ten
9. Words?
1. The
2. Smallest
3. Number
4. In
5. Existance
6. That
7. Is
8. Not
9. Nameable
10. In
11. Ten
12. Words


May I get my cookie?
 

bl4ckh4wk64

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Jun 11, 2010
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grimsprice said:
Renamedsin said:
Blah blah blah unstoppable stuff and immovable object stuff.
The object would have to contain infinite mass in order for a given force to not move it at all. If an object existed with infinite mass, the entire universe would implode instantly due to its infinite gravity.

If you magically stabalize the universe, and then fling another object at it that cannot be stopped (which would again be something with infinite energy) the two would collide and obliterate each other. The resulting release of energy would slowly disintegrate the whole universe.

so..... black hole?
 

grimsprice

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bl4ckh4wk64 said:
grimsprice said:
Renamedsin said:
Blah blah blah unstoppable stuff and immovable object stuff.
The object would have to contain infinite mass in order for a given force to not move it at all. If an object existed with infinite mass, the entire universe would implode instantly due to its infinite gravity.

If you magically stabalize the universe, and then fling another object at it that cannot be stopped (which would again be something with infinite energy) the two would collide and obliterate each other. The resulting release of energy would slowly disintegrate the whole universe.

so..... black hole?
Nope. A black holes' gravity can be quantified. It can be measured and fought with a rocket from a safe distance. This black whole would be infinitely powerful from an infinite range. It would suck up the entire universe instantly, rather than slowly over time. Like normal black holes.
 

LadyRhian

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caspertjuhh said:
The last man on earth sat in a room.

then there came a knock on the door.



----
shortest scary story ever.
And a woman walked in. It only says he was the last man on earth. Not the last human.

My next sentence will be a lie. I lied.
 

Aurgelmir

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hudsonzero said:
Squidden said:
How long will it take you to cross a crosswalk if with each step, you cut the distance you walked with the prior step by half?
well if we knew how big the initial step was, how long the cross-walk is and how long each step takes, you can work that out
It doesn't matter. Granted you take normal steps, and didn't get over half way across in one step.

Lets say it takes me 10 normal steps to cross the road. So in my first step I cross 10% of the road.

Now I half my step and I have crossed 15% of the road.
Do another halving of my steps and I have crossed 19% of the road...

We can keep on going but the math will show that you need to take an infinite number of steps to cross.

In reality you end up with not being able to take smaller steps, and some would consider you having crossed the road if you are just a few micrometer away. But math wise you will never cross 100% of the road