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Not at all a paradox. A paradox would require two inconsistent things to be simultaneously true. This is just an answer that's counter-intuitive. It's entire

Not at all a paradox. A paradox would require two inconsistent things to be simultaneously true. This is just an answer that's counter-intuitive. It's entirely consistent, but surprising.

acangiano 18y ago
From wikipedia: "A paradox can be an apparently true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition; or it can be, seemingly opposite, an apparent contradiction that actually expresses a non-dual truth (cf. Koan). Typically, either the statements in question do not really imply the contradiction, the puzzling result is not really a contradiction, or the premises themselves are not all really true or cannot all be true together. [...] A veridical paradox produces a result that appears absurd but is demonstrated to be true nevertheless. Thus, the paradox of Frederic's birthday in The Pirates of Penzance establishes the surprising fact that a person's fifth birthday is the day he turns twenty, if born on a leap day. Likewise, Arrow's impossibility theorem involves behaviour of voting systems that is surprising but true." But yes, it's a puzzle with a counterintuitive result.
- mixmax 18y ago
  Like the birthday paradox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox
  - acangiano 18y ago
    Exactly. Arguably that's the etymological meaning of the term. (It comes from Greek, "para" which means "contrary to" and "doxa" which is "opinion").
cperciva 18y ago
I don't even find this counter-intuitive. Maybe my intuition has been shaped by spending most of my life doing mathematics. :-)
- tdavis 18y ago
  I have to agree here... a meter is a meter is a meter -- regardless of how long a rope it's being added to. The relative difference between the ropes is still only one meter when taking into account the scaled proportions. I hope the other "paradoxes" in this book are more impressive ;)

Not at all a paradox. A paradox would require two inconsistent things to be simultaneously true. This is just an answer that's counter-intuitive. It's entirely consistent, but surprising.

acangiano 18y ago

From wikipedia: "A paradox can be an apparently true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition; or it can be, seemingly opposite, an apparent contradiction that actually expresses a non-dual truth (cf. Koan). Typically, either the statements in question do not really imply the contradiction, the puzzling result is not really a contradiction, or the premises themselves are not all really true or cannot all be true together. [...] A veridical paradox produces a result that appears absurd but is demonstrated to be true nevertheless. Thus, the paradox of Frederic's birthday in The Pirates of Penzance establishes the surprising fact that a person's fifth birthday is the day he turns twenty, if born on a leap day. Likewise, Arrow's impossibility theorem involves behaviour of voting systems that is surprising but true." But yes, it's a puzzle with a counterintuitive result.

mixmax 18y ago
Like the birthday paradox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox
- acangiano 18y ago
  Exactly. Arguably that's the etymological meaning of the term. (It comes from Greek, "para" which means "contrary to" and "doxa" which is "opinion").

cperciva 18y ago

I don't even find this counter-intuitive. Maybe my intuition has been shaped by spending most of my life doing mathematics. :-)

tdavis 18y ago
I have to agree here... a meter is a meter is a meter -- regardless of how long a rope it's being added to. The relative difference between the ropes is still only one meter when taking into account the scaled proportions. I hope the other "paradoxes" in this book are more impressive ;)