Author |
Message |
Faerygdds
Member
08-29-2000
| Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 10:40 am
My husband introduces a new paradoxical story everyday at work and is gathering responses. It's sort of a study in human behavior/thinking/reasoning. Anyway, I thought I would post them here and see what our geniuses at TVCH come up with! Here is today's: The unexpected hanging [A man condemned to be hanged] was sentenced on Saturday. "The hanging will take place at noon," said the judge to the prisoner, "on one of the seven days of next week. But you will not know which day it is until you are so informed on the morning of the day of the hanging." The judge was known to be a man who always kept his word. The prisoner, accompanied by his lawyer, went back to his cell. As soon as the two men were alone, the lawyer broke into a grin. "Don't you see?" he exclaimed. "The judge's sentence cannot possibly be carried out." "I don't see," said the prisoner. "Let me explain They obviously can't hang you next Saturday. Saturday is the last day of the week. On Friday afternoon you would still be alive and you would know with absolute certainty that the hanging would be on Saturday. You would know this before you were told so on Saturday morning. That would violate the judge's decree." "True," said the prisoner. "Saturday, then is positively ruled out," continued the lawyer. "This leaves Friday as the last day they can hang you. But they can't hang you on Friday because by Thursday only two days would remain: Friday and Saturday. Since Saturday is not a possible day, the hanging would have to be on Friday. Your knowledge of that fact would violate the judge's decree again. So Friday is out. This leaves Thursday as the last possible day. But Thursday is out because if you're alive Wednesday afternoon, you'll know that Thursday is to be the day." "I get it," said the prisoner, who was beginning to feel much better. "In exactly the same way I can rule out Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday. That leaves only tomorrow. But they can't hang me tomorrow because I know it today!" ... He is convinced, by what appears to be unimpeachable logic, that he cannot be hanged without contradicting the conditions specified in his sentence. Then on Thursday morning, to his great surprise, the hangman arrives. Clearly he did not expect him. What is more surprising, the judge's decree is now seen to be perfectly correctly. The sentence can be carried out exactly as stated.
|
Jed245
Member
11-01-2002
| Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 11:14 am
Saturday can only be eliminated on friday. Therefore, friday can't be eliminated till thursday, which, still leaves the possibility that it could be friday or saturday.
|
Wendo
Member
08-07-2000
| Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 11:15 am
Yeah, what Jed posted. LOL! (I was gonna post "uhm...")
|
Faerygdds
Member
08-29-2000
| Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 1:10 pm
LOL! My solution was that no matter what day the executioner walked in he should have said, "Good Morning! I knew you'd be here this morning!"

|
Faerygdds
Member
08-29-2000
| Friday, May 28, 2004 - 6:39 am
Today's Paradox... You are in a boring room. No windows, no furniture of any kind (sofas, tables, clocks, lamps, etc). There are 3 things in the room... 1) A lighter 2) A rope measuring 3 feet that has an inconsistent width 3) A rope measuring 5 feet that has an inconsistent width You must leave this room in EXACTLY 45 minutes. (Don't ask me why... I don't make the rules) Both ropes will completely burn up in one hour despite the inconsistency in the widths, however they do not burn at a perfect rate because of this inconsistency. How do you know when 45 minutes is up and you can/should leave the room?
|
Eliz87
Member
07-30-2001
| Friday, May 28, 2004 - 6:46 am
Look at your wristwatch?
|
Eliz87
Member
07-30-2001
| Friday, May 28, 2004 - 6:55 am
I shared this with a friend, and here is his answer: Light both ends of one rope and one end of the other. The first one is gone at half an hour. Light the other end of the second one. One of us has to be right I would think.
|
Faerygdds
Member
08-29-2000
| Friday, May 28, 2004 - 8:10 am
Very Nice Eliz!!!
|
Eliz87
Member
07-30-2001
| Friday, May 28, 2004 - 8:11 am
Thank you. Which one of us was right?
|
Resortgirl
Member
09-23-2000
| Friday, May 28, 2004 - 8:20 am
This makes my brain hurt!! LOL! 
|
Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Friday, May 28, 2004 - 8:31 am
Help me! Help me! I'm melting from the brain strain myself.
|
Carrie92
Member
09-15-2003
| Friday, May 28, 2004 - 10:38 am
Forget the ropes and start counting "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi..." until you get to 2700. That's 45 mins.
|
Faerygdds
Member
08-29-2000
| Friday, May 28, 2004 - 12:08 pm
Your friend got it right Eliz... There are no wrist watches in the boring room!!! LOL Think of it as.... the BB storage room with nothing in it! LOL
|
|