Your favorite paradoxes
- Thread starter EllaAlle
- Start date
It's not so much a paradox as a logical fallacy. The first number not nameable in under ten words would itself be named as "the first number not nameable in under ten words" which is nine words. http://www.math.toronto.edu/mathnet/falseProofs/numbersDescribable.htmlNeutralDrow said:
Wouldn't that still mean there are no numbers not nameable in under ten words?Seldon2639 said:
Huh. And that link...wouldn't the fallacy be that n is itself ambiguous?
The Anarchy Paradox:
There is only one rule. There are no rules.
-----------------------------------------------
I was having a huge political discussion about anarchy the other day, and managed to prove everyone in the class wrong. Go me.
There is only one rule. There are no rules.
-----------------------------------------------
I was having a huge political discussion about anarchy the other day, and managed to prove everyone in the class wrong. Go me.
Because there are an infinite number of planets that have no intelligent life, there is no intelligent life in the universe and therefore we don't exist.
Ignorance is Strength? =PTheDoctor455 said:
Also, I might add the novel Catch 22. That book is just full of paradoxes.
"The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likeable. In three days no one could stand him."
One of my friends came up with the line,
"Freedom within Conformity"
Randomly for a book he was writing. I loved it, I thought that was fantastically paradoxial.
Another one is taken from late comedian Mitch Hedberg.
"My belt is holding up my pants, but my belt loops are holding up my belt. What's going on down there? I don't know who the real hero is."
"Freedom within Conformity"
Randomly for a book he was writing. I loved it, I thought that was fantastically paradoxial.
Another one is taken from late comedian Mitch Hedberg.
"My belt is holding up my pants, but my belt loops are holding up my belt. What's going on down there? I don't know who the real hero is."
Yes and no. The site I linked to describes it better than I can. The original phrasing is what's paradoxical (and thus fallacious, mathematically speaking). The problem with paradoxes in math is that (unlike those which use English) they're simply wrong.NeutralDrow said:
In deference to your friend, I'll assume he's never read 1984, and simply came to a very similar paradox to the phrase "freedom is slavery" (or was it "slavery is freedom") which occurred in the Orwell book. Though, yes, he's basically aping Big Brother's paradoxical phrases.Inverse Skies said:
On the Hedberg question, it's not a paradox, simply a misstatement of the status of the relationship between the belt and the loops. If the belt loops are holding up the belt, it means that the pants are tight enough to be held up by friction alone, in which case the belt is not holding up the pants. If the belt is holding up the pants, it is actually the loops which are keeping the belt properly attached to the pants (either insofar as they keep the belt at the correct level to provide more normal force, and thus more friction, or through the loops actually being used to "hold up" the pants).
Only one of the statements between "my belt is holding up my pants" and "my belt loops are holding up my belt" can be true at one time. Analogously, it's not a "paradox" to say "it's nighttime outside, but the sun is up, I don't know what's going on". A contradiction in terms is not paradoxical.
I also hate Mitch Hedberg in general (his death notwithstanding), though, so I'm predisposed to have disdain for his "jokes"
That site is wrong.Seldon2639 said:
There is no fallacy, it's simply the case that every natural number can be described in 14 words or less. Yes, the phrase "The smallest natural number that cannot be unambiguously described in fourteen words or less." cannot be consistently applied to any natural number. That isn't a fallacy, that's the proof.
If it can't be consistently applied to any number, it can't be true of any number.
Thanks, I forgot that one.Crystal Cuckoo said:
And yeah, I do like "Ignorance is Strength", not because it applies to me personally, but because I and anyone else can use it when pointing fingers at all of the idiots in the world.