A paradox is a given situation or statement that is difficult to realize because it contains two completely opposite solutions that contradict each other, but both of these options are possible. Today we suggest that you ponder a little on such tasks that, at least, make you think or even enter into a stupor.
1
The paradox of "grandfather"
Imagine a time traveler falling into the past. There he meets his grandfather before he meets his grandmother. Then the traveler, under some circumstances, kills his grandfather. This means that he will never be born. But if so, how could he return to the past to kill his grandfather? So, the traveler was still born and returned to the past, despite the fact that he killed his grandfather. Paradox.
Another similar situation is called Hitler's paradox. If you or someone returned to the past and killed Hitler in order to prevent the Second World War, then it would not have happened. This means that you would not have a reason to return to the past and kill Hitler, so you would not return to the past and World War II cannot be avoided. These are the time travel paradoxes that make some things meaningless and impossible.
2
The Liar's Paradox
The Cretan philosopher Epimenides belongs to the immortal phrase "All Cretans are liars." The paradox is whether he is telling the truth or not. If he tells the truth, it turns out that he is lying, since all Cretans, including himself, are liars and can not tell the truth. If his statement is not true, then this can be allowed. In this case, there is no paradox.
Epimenides lived in the 6th century BC and was considered an orator, philosopher and prophet. Also associated with him are mythical stories. According to one myth, Epimenides slept in a cave for almost 60 years, and when he woke up, he could predict the future.
3
Theseus ship paradox
This paradox was put forward by the philosopher Plutarch. The ship on which Theseus and his crew arrived from Crete was retained by the Athenians until the reign of King Demetrius. They managed to save the ship by gradually replacing every part of the ship, which eventually deteriorated and rotted. After the philosophers asked themselves, is this still Theseus's ship, if all the parts are replaced, but the appearance of the ship remains the same?
By the way, there is an interesting article on the largest ships in the world on our site thebiggest.ru.
The same can be said of every person. It has been established that within five years of life in the human body, all cells completely change. Consequently, the atoms that make up our body were not in the body five years ago. One question immediately begs: is it possible to say that “I am today” and “I am five years ago” are one and the same person?
4
Barber's paradox
Imagine the city in which the only male hairdresser lives. He has an iron rule - he should shave and serve only those men who do not shave themselves. If a hairdresser shaves himself, it means that he cannot do it, because he is the hairdresser who has the rule. And if he does not shave himself, then according to the established rule, it is he who must serve and shave himself. This paradox shows that such a person cannot be in principle, since all his actions violate the internal rules established by him.
5
The Paradox of Buridan
Imagine a hungry donkey that is placed between two completely identical haystacks. They are at the same distance from him. As a result, the donkey can not choose which stack is more attractive to him and dies of hunger.
This paradox was put forward by the philosopher Buridan. He wanted to show by this that human will and desires always strive for a better choice, but if the choice is equally valuable, then the person is limp and cannot make a choice.
6
The paradox of the court
One day, the philosopher Protagoras took a student by the name of Evatel to study the case. They concluded a contract according to which Evatl would be required to pay 5,000 dinars for tuition after the first case won in court. After training, Evatl did not pay Protagoras, as he simply did not accept a single client and never participated in court. With annoyance, Protagoras sued Evatla to return the money.
Protagoras claimed that Evatl would pay him anyway, even if Evatl won the case, because according to the contract, he had to pay after the case he won. And if he loses, he will pay by court order.
Evatl claimed that he would not pay him in any way. If he wins, then he will not have to pay by court order, and if he loses, then according to the agreement.
7
The heterologous paradox
All words can be divided into two groups: heterologous and autologous.
Autological words have all the properties that they describe. For example, “letter” consists of letters, “Russian” is Russian, and “five-syllable” consists of five syllables.
The meaning of the word “heterologous” refers to words that do not describe themselves. They are also called foreign. And now the question is - does the word “heterologous” describe itself or not? According to the first logic, it describes its meaning, which means it is unambiguous, but its meaning contradicts this. It seems that the task is simple, but you can think about it for hours.
8
The paradox with poison
Imagine that a rich person is turning to you who offers you a million dollars if you drink poison. This poison is non-fatal, but within one day you will be very sick, and then there will be no consequences. You are offered the condition that if you decide to drink poison tomorrow afternoon by midnight today, then the money will arrive in your account in the morning. In fact, you can not drink anything, because you will have money in the morning and there is no need to do it. This means that the temptation is great to get money without drinking poison. So how do you agree to drink something if you are not going to do it?
This paradox is a striking example of the essence of human promises, especially the election promises of deputies and presidents. They talk about their intentions to do something, get votes and a position, and then do not keep their promises.
Also on thebiggest.ru you can read about poisons known to mankind.
9
Supergame Paradox
To understand this paradox, we introduce some concepts. Let those games that are finite, where one of the two players win, be considered normal games. For example, chess, checkers, etc. Abnormal games are games where there is no logical end and result. They are endless. There is also a super game. According to the super-game rule, one player chooses some normal game of his choice on the first move. For example, a player in a super game says, “Let's play checkers.” And two players play checkers the next move until one wins. But what happens if a player in a supergame chooses the supergame itself for the game? He will say: - "Let's play a super game." Then the second player will also have to play the super game and so on ad infinitum. The paradox is whether the supergame itself is finite or infinite?
10
Tea leaf paradox
This paradox is based on physics, which Einstein explained well. It consists in the fact that when stirring water in a glass, at the bottom of which there are several tea leaves, they are collected at the bottom and in the center of the mug, but according to the logic of centrifugal force they should be at the edges of the glass during rotation.
When we rotate water, centrifugal forces appear. These forces cannot change the direction of the flow, because in the way they have an obstacle that is static. Near the walls of the glass, the fluid inhibits friction. The angular velocity of the fluid is less at the edges than at the center. Therefore, the centrifugal force itself is stronger on the surface than on the bottom, which proves the appearance of a circular motion, which presses the tea leaves to the bottom of the glass.
In order for the gulls to rotate around the edges of the vessel, it is necessary to rotate the vessel itself with water, and not just water in a standing glass.
Author: Altenko Sergey