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Paradox of the Day

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions: 2004 May - July: Free Expressions (ARCHIVES): Paradox of the Day users admin

Author Message
Faerygdds
Member

08-29-2000

Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 10:40 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
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   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
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   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Yeah, what Jed posted. LOL!

(I was gonna post "uhm...")

Faerygdds
Member

08-29-2000

Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 1:10 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
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   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
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   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Look at your wristwatch?

Eliz87
Member

07-30-2001

Friday, May 28, 2004 - 6:55 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
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   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Very Nice Eliz!!!



Eliz87
Member

07-30-2001

Friday, May 28, 2004 - 8:11 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thank you. Which one of us was right?

Resortgirl
Member

09-23-2000

Friday, May 28, 2004 - 8:20 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
This makes my brain hurt!! LOL!

Ophiliasgrandma
Member

09-04-2001

Friday, May 28, 2004 - 8:31 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Help me! Help me! I'm melting from the brain strain myself.

Carrie92
Member

09-15-2003

Friday, May 28, 2004 - 10:38 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
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   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
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