World's best suggested paradox

[DuctTapeJedi]

Mine is:
What happens if you put super glue on a Teflon-covered frying pan?

That is all I have to say on that.

 

[smeghead25]

The last man on earth sat in a room.

then there came a knock on the door.



----
shortest scary story ever.

I would love to be that last man on Earth when they come a knockin'

 

[crudus]

Socratic paradox: "I know that I know nothing at all.

At the very least it is a personal favorite of mine.

Freezerburn.

Jumbo shrimp.

But wait, those are oxymorons (sp?). But they count as parodoxes, they're just one word...

As for the riddle type: I got nothing sorry...

there's a difference between Paradoxes and an oxymoron. "Jumbo shrimp" is just larger than average shrimp. They clearly exist. A good portion of them are relative to context.

A paradox is a logical contradiction.

Curry's Paradox [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry%27s_paradox], a logical paradox that allows you to "prove" any given statement:

If this sentence is true then Santa Claus exists.
If this sentence is true then the sky is green.
If this sentence is true then God exists.
If this sentence is true then God does not exist.

All of those sentences are true. It's great.

The problem is Curry's Paradox is just valid, not sound. A valid argument is set up in such a way where given the premises the conclusion cannot be untrue. Example "All birds are mammals. A platypus is a bird. Therefore, the platypus is a mammal". Now this is a valid argument because given the premises, the conclusion must be true. An argument is sound if the premises are actually true. Curry's Paradox isn't a paradox at all. It is just uses the definition of valid and sound arguments to its advantage. It is a fun parlor trick but no paradox.

Mine is:
What happens if you put super glue on a Teflon-covered frying pan?

Can't that be tested?

 

[royohz]

Mine is:
What happens if you put super glue on a Teflon-covered frying pan?

Can't that be tested?

Hmm, I suppose. However, I'd prefer it if I didn't destroy the universe...

 

[chiMmy]

if you travel back in time for one day, meet yourself, have sex with yourself, is it incest or masturbation. :|

Why would that be a paradox?

It seems a lot of people don't actually know what a paradox is

 

[Ewyx]

if you travel back in time for one day, meet yourself, have sex with yourself, is it incest or masturbation. :|

Why would that be a paradox?

It seems a lot of people don't actually know what a paradox is

guess I just went with the theme of the thread, was trying to post a funny statement more than an actual paradox, since most of them are just dumb discussions over semantics anyway.

 

[Redingold]

How long will it take you to cross a crosswalk if with each step, you cut the distance you walked with the prior step by half?

You would make it if you initially stepped more than halfway across the crosswalk.

Also I forget the name but what's the smallest number not nameable in under 10 words?

I say it again what's

1. The
2. Smallest
3. Number
4. Not
5. Nameable
6. In
7. Under
8. Ten
9. Words?

I think that's Richard's Paradox.

It's false because that sentence does not actually define a number unambiguously.

 

[Redingold]

1: Yes

If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is around to hear it Does it make a sound?

Answer: No
Ask yourself, What is sound?
Sound is basically vibrations cause by impact or movement (take a drum as a basic example). A drum stick hits the head of the drum, the whole thing vibrates air molecules around it. The vibrations (AKA sound waves), travel through the air at very high speeds. If a person is in the vicinity (presumably having a working ear) the ear will convert the vibration that reaches it into what we perceive as sound.

If nobody is around, then nothing is there to convert it into sound, therefor all you have are vibrations in the air, not "Sound". The way ear plugs block sound is by preventing the eardrum from receiving vibrations.

FUN FACT: However, it is possible to pick up vibrations in the ear drum despite deafness, or plugs etc, if the source of the vibrations is placed on the skin near the ear on the skull.

One mistake. You said nobody, not nothing. Animals don't count under nobody.

True... but I have reached the same result when I swap in "Nothing".
OR...
What if I count animals in the "Nobody" category.

If a tree falls in the forest and there's no-one there to see it fall, does it actually fall?

Additionally, a sound is simply a wave, not the perception of a wave. So it still makes a sound.

If you were to ask if the quale of sound existed, the answer would be no.

 

[Ildecia]

what happens if you glue some toast butter side up to the back of a cat, and then drop the cat?

i laughed at this so much before i could do anything else.

I'm going with the whole buttered toast thing as well

 

[Marowit]

I know what you are, but what am I?

 

[esperandote]

"this sentece consists of eight words" is false but if you deny it
"this sentece does not consists of eight words" is still false

 

[x EvilErmine x]

How long will it take you to cross a crosswalk if with each step, you cut the distance you walked with the prior step by half?

That's easy, you would never get across the road. You would get 99.99% recurring they way across but would never actually get there

 

[NLS]

If you try to fail, and you succeed, what have you done?

 

[x EvilErmine x]

"this sentece consists of eight words" is false but if you deny it
"this sentece does not consists of eight words" is still false

It's not if you say doesn't and not does not p

~~~EDIT~~~

Ooops looks like you were right in the first place...my bad /

 

[Rofl-Mayo]

If you try to fail, and you succeed, what have you done?

You've succeeded because failing was your initial goal.

Right now I can't think of any good paradoxes.

 

[Dragonpit]

A man walks up to you and says "I'm a compulsive liar", can you trust him?

Easy, just put a loaded gun to his head and ask him if that was a true statement. He'll be too terrified to lie.

If a crocodile steals a child and promises its return if the father can correctly guess what the crocodile will do, how should the crocodile respond in the case that the father guesses that the child will not be returned?

Bite the the father's face off. He never promised not to. He can then return the bones to the corpse dad.

IF this sentence is true then it is false.

You're assuming it has to be true to be false. But it's actually a Square-Rectangle situation. It can be true and therefor false (a square is a rectangle) but it can be false without being true (a rectangle is not a square).

Has anyone ever spoken Japanese with a British accent?
Why have they not made a orange-flavored Coca-Cola?
Would a rainy day constitute as a form of twilight?

1: Duh. A Brit speaking Japanese would be doing so with a British accent.
2: There is no market for it. It would be awful.
3: No.

Oh, and on the subject of irresistable force VS an immovable object? The universe moves instead...

OMFG THEY JUST PASS THROUGH EACH OTHER IT'S NOT HARD

Or the Unstoppable Force bounces off.

"If you have sex with your clone, is it incest or masturbation?"

-Yahtzee

Incest is defined as sexual intercourse with a close (as we are all genetic relatives) genetic relative. Masturbation is defined by using one's own limbs or tools to pleasure oneself. Therefor, it is incest.

In this order:
Pointing a gun to someone's head doesn't necessarily guarantee them telling the truth. In such situations, they'd actually be willing to say anything to get out of it, truth or not. Therefore, it doesn't solve anything.

That's...somewhat funny.

It is that very assumption that makes it a paradox.

That, in itself, is the problem. When learning languages, one usually ends up disposing of ones accent. Just because the speaker is British, it doesn't guarantee they'll use their accent while speaking another language.

Someone actually sent me a Wikipedia link, so apparently Coca-Cola with Orange does in fact exist. There is a market for it.

You're just going to say no? No elaboration? Then I cannot consider your argument there.

There has been an interesting flexibility of the mind here.

An interesting argument, but you're doing with your clone, which means you're doing it with 'yourself.' He/she is not a blood relative. Therefore, it is not incest; it is masturbation.

 

[Banana Phone]

I honestly thought I had invented the Grandfather Paradox before I looked it up a few minutes ago. I didn't know it was a widely recognized thing. This is tripping me out.

OT, my favorite one ever: what would happen if a spaceship was traveling at close to the speed of light, and also spinning with a rotational velocity of close to the speed of light? One side of the ship would be exceeding the speed of light, would it not? But theoretically it is impossible to do such a thing.