Paradoxes

[kolko]

Actually, if you go back in time, I belive you end up in a different universe :o

 

 

 

This. Every "moment" in time creates a new universe.

 

Not just one, infinitely many, because there's an infinite number of things that could happen (although they would all be highly improbable) between one moment and the next. The multiverse isn't just infinite, it's insanely infinite.

 

Or you could just use Occam's razor and say time travel isn't possble :

[walka92]

I found this one lets see if anyone can solve it:

 

 

 

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?

 

 

 

I think that was in a magazine once. I forgot the reasoning, but it is to your advantage to switch your choice. It was in the novel "The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime". I must reread it.

 

 

 

And to the OP: your reasoning is flawed. You can't divide by 0 because it produces obscure, impossible results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then there's the classic: What happens when unstoppable force hits an immovable object?

 

My mediocre reasoning is that an unstoppable force and an immovable object cannot exist simultaneously in the same universe. Unstoppable means that absolutely nothing can stop it. Immovable means that absolutely nothing can move it. You can't have both of them at the same time, they negate eachother. Now lets say for the sake of a good argument that both do happen to somehow exist in one universe (which would defy logic and physics). In which case, my friends and I (we were discussing this riddle at lunch in school) thought of a few results for if the two were to collide:

 

1. If the force was continuous, like a lazer beam or another beam-type thing, then the force would break up and move around the object, or be sent in a lateral direction. Sounds imposible? We're defying all the laws of logic and physics to keep the two things in the same universe, remember?

 

2. If the force was a one time non-continuous thing, like say the punch of an incredibly strong giant that couldn't be stopped, then both the force and the object would be destroyed instantly.

 

 

 

I know my reasoning sounds awkward, I haven't much experience in the theoretical thinking department,

 

dude, thats like, dividing by zero. it'll causes black holes and makes the universe implode or something

[Will H]

Actually, if you go back in time, I belive you end up in a different universe :o

 

 

 

This. Every "moment" in time creates a new universe.

 

Not just one, infinitely many, because there's an infinite number of things that could happen (although they would all be highly improbable) between one moment and the next. The multiverse isn't just infinite, it's insanely infinite.

 

Or you could just use Occam's razor and say time travel isn't possble :

 

That's the suggested implication of the proposed paradox, you're just giving in. My solution both destroys the paradox and keeps time travel logically possible. ;)

[Range_This11]

Since there is no possible way to say that there is a distinct number of hairs on a man's head that makes him either bald or not, removing one hair cannot possibly make a person bald. In other words, you cannot remove one hair from your head and suddenly become bald. There is no way that we can make that kind of acute distinction. If I remove one hair from my head, I cannot possibly be bald so it must follow that no matter how many single hairs I remove, I will never become bald.

 

 

 

There is no such thing as bald.

 

 

 

Learned that in a philosophy course last semester. Kind of interesting.

[Lenin64]

Since there is no possible way to say that there is a distinct number of hairs on a man's head that makes him either bald or not, removing one hair cannot possibly make a person bald. In other words, you cannot remove one hair from your head and suddenly become bald. There is no way that we can make that kind of acute distinction. If I remove one hair from my head, I cannot possibly be bald so it must follow that no matter how many single hairs I remove, I will never become bald.

 

 

 

There is no such thing as bald.

 

 

 

Learned that in a philosophy course last semester. Kind of interesting.

 

Except there is a line. Once you have 0 hairs on your head, you're bald. Anything is else is balding at the most. Even 1.

[mmmcannibalism]

Since there is no possible way to say that there is a distinct number of hairs on a man's head that makes him either bald or not, removing one hair cannot possibly make a person bald. In other words, you cannot remove one hair from your head and suddenly become bald. There is no way that we can make that kind of acute distinction. If I remove one hair from my head, I cannot possibly be bald so it must follow that no matter how many single hairs I remove, I will never become bald.

 

 

 

There is no such thing as bald.

 

 

 

Learned that in a philosophy course last semester. Kind of interesting.

 

Except there is a line. Once you have 0 hairs on your head, you're bald. Anything is else is balding at the most. Even 1.

 

 

 

Agreed, this isn't a paradox its just a bit of a trap.

 

 

 

As a good argument against it; since you can ressusitate someone after their heart stops there is no definite line between living and dead(after all doctor declaring doesn't change your physical state). Therefore, each second after your heart stops you are still alive; therefore, it is impossible to die.

[ElkNight]

Very weird example of the grandfather paradox.

 

Not sure if it has already been posted.

 

[hide=]Perhaps the craziest of the time travel paradoxes was cooked up by Robert Heinlein in his classic short story "All You Zombies."

 

 

 

A baby girl is mysteriously dropped off at an orphanage in Cleveland in 1945. "Jane" grows up lonely and dejected, not knowing who her parents are, until one day in 1963 she is strangely attracted to a drifter. She falls in love with him. But just when things are finally looking up for Jane, a series of disasters strike. First, she becomes pregnant by the drifter, who then disappears. Second, during the complicated delivery, doctors find that Jane has both sets of sex organs, and to save her life, they are forced to surgically convert "her" to a "him." Finally, a mysterious stranger kidnaps her baby from the delivery room.

 

 

 

Reeling from these disasters, rejected by society, scorned by fate, "he" becomes a drunkard and drifter. Not only has Jane lost her parents and her lover, but he has lost his only child as well. Years later, in 1970, he stumbles into a lonely bar, called Pop's Place, and spills out his pathetic story to an elderly bartender. The sympathetic bartender offers the drifter the chance to avenge the stranger who left her pregnant and abandoned, on the condition that he join the "time travelers corps." Both of them enter a time machine, and the bartender drops off the drifter in 1963. The drifter is strangely attracted to a young orphan woman, who subsequently becomes pregnant.

 

 

 

The bartender then goes forward 9 months, kidnaps the baby girl from the hospital, and drops off the baby in an orphanage back in 1945. Then the bartender drops off the thoroughly confused drifter in 1985, to enlist in the time travelers corps. The drifter eventually gets his life together, becomes a respected and elderly member of the time travelers corps, and then disguises himself as a bartender and has his most difficult mission: a date with destiny, meeting a certain drifter at Pop's Place in 1970.

 

 

 

The question is: Who is Jane's mother, father, grandfather, grand mother, son, daughter, granddaughter, and grandson? The girl, the drifter, and the bartender, of course, are all the same person. These paradoxes can made your head spin, especially if you try to untangle Jane's twisted parentage. If we drawJane's family tree, we find that all the branches are curled inward back on themselves, as in a circle. We come to the astonishing conclusion that she is her own mother and father! She is an entire family tree unto herself.[/hide]

[ValidLogic]

Xeno's paradox. I love it.

[J35u5_M4]

a=b

 

a^2=ab

 

2a^2=a^2+ab

 

2a^2-2ab=a^2+ab-2ab

 

2a^2-2ab=a^2-ab

 

2(a^2-ab)=1(a^2-ab)

 

2=1

 

 

 

Let's go through this step by step.

 

 

 

a=b Start

 

a^2=ab (times whole equation by a)

 

2a^2=a^2+ab (what the hell did you do here? You timesd the left side of the equation by a^2 and you added a^2 to the right hand side. You fail. It should be 2a^2=ba^3)

 

 

 

He added, not multiplied.

 

Since a=b, you can look at the second to last step and replace the (a^2-ab) with (a^2-a^2). That equals 0, so you're basically taking 2(0) = 1(0), which is true.

 

 

 

I actually go back on what I said originally. That was really [developmentally delayed]. I guess I am used to seeing it as a² rather than a^2 and misinterpreted it somewhere. (By the way if you want ³ or ² then use alt codes Alt+0179 and Alt+0178).

 

 

 

           a = b

         a² = ab

        2a² = a² + ab

  2a² - 2ab = a² + ab - 2ab

  2a² - 2ab = a² - ab

 2(a² - ab) = 1(a² - ab)

 

 

 

There it is for those who like it like I do.

 

 

 

He, doesn't remains as 2 = 1, Since A² is ab, you could say that 2(a² - a²) = 1 (a² - a²). Giving you 2(0)=1(0). If you try to cancel the 0s, well you can't because you can't divide by 0.

 

 

 

That is why we have those rules

[mmmcannibalism]

Very weird example of the grandfather paradox.

 

Not sure if it has already been posted.

 

[hide=]Perhaps the craziest of the time travel paradoxes was cooked up by Robert Heinlein in his classic short story "All You Zombies."

 

 

 

A baby girl is mysteriously dropped off at an orphanage in Cleveland in 1945. "Jane" grows up lonely and dejected, not knowing who her parents are, until one day in 1963 she is strangely attracted to a drifter. She falls in love with him. But just when things are finally looking up for Jane, a series of disasters strike. First, she becomes pregnant by the drifter, who then disappears. Second, during the complicated delivery, doctors find that Jane has both sets of sex organs, and to save her life, they are forced to surgically convert "her" to a "him." Finally, a mysterious stranger kidnaps her baby from the delivery room.

 

 

 

Reeling from these disasters, rejected by society, scorned by fate, "he" becomes a drunkard and drifter. Not only has Jane lost her parents and her lover, but he has lost his only child as well. Years later, in 1970, he stumbles into a lonely bar, called Pop's Place, and spills out his pathetic story to an elderly bartender. The sympathetic bartender offers the drifter the chance to avenge the stranger who left her pregnant and abandoned, on the condition that he join the "time travelers corps." Both of them enter a time machine, and the bartender drops off the drifter in 1963. The drifter is strangely attracted to a young orphan woman, who subsequently becomes pregnant.

 

 

 

The bartender then goes forward 9 months, kidnaps the baby girl from the hospital, and drops off the baby in an orphanage back in 1945. Then the bartender drops off the thoroughly confused drifter in 1985, to enlist in the time travelers corps. The drifter eventually gets his life together, becomes a respected and elderly member of the time travelers corps, and then disguises himself as a bartender and has his most difficult mission: a date with destiny, meeting a certain drifter at Pop's Place in 1970.

 

 

 

The question is: Who is Jane's mother, father, grandfather, grand mother, son, daughter, granddaughter, and grandson? The girl, the drifter, and the bartender, of course, are all the same person. These paradoxes can made your head spin, especially if you try to untangle Jane's twisted parentage. If we drawJane's family tree, we find that all the branches are curled inward back on themselves, as in a circle. We come to the astonishing conclusion that she is her own mother and father! She is an entire family tree unto herself.[/hide]

 

 

 

Nice, though not at all hard to follow.