Author: Trisha Leigh Zeigenhorn / Source: did you know?
Maybe you don’t spend a ton of time thinking about paradoxes – defined as a “seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true” – but trust me, there’s nothing that people on Reddit don’t ruminate on.
And in this case, we’re all better for it.
#15. Design conundrum.
“Maybe not a true “paradox”, but a great design conundrum:
Prescription pill bottles must be: 1) Easy for older people with arthritis to open 2) Difficult for small children’s hands to open.”
#14. Extremely surprised.
“The unexpected exam. A professor says there will be an exam next week, and it will be a surprise: they won’t be able to deduce the exact day. The students reason that it can’t be on Friday, since if all the other days have been exam free, it won’t be a surprise anymore. So it must be Mon-Thu. But then it can’t be Thursday, by the same logic. Proceeding similarly the students deduce the exam can’t happen at all, and are thus extremely surprised when it happens on Wednesday.”
#13. They would have to be crazy.
“I really want to date someone, but not someone crazy. Someone would have to be crazy to date me. From catch-22.”
#12. Simple and sweet.
“Don’t take instructions from me.”
#11. When groups are combined.
“Simpson’s Paradox: when a trend appears in several different groups of data but disappears or reverses when groups are combined.”
#10. Don’t go there.
“No one goes there because it’s always crowded.”
#9. A problem in logic.
“Paradox of the Court.
“The Paradox of the Court, also known as the counterdilemma of Euathlus, is a very old problem in logic stemming from ancient Greece. It is said that the famous sophist Protagoras took on a pupil, Euathlus, on the understanding that the student pay Protagoras for his infrastructure after he wins his first court case. After instruction, Euathlus decided to not enter the profession of law, and Protagoras decided to sue Euathlus for the amount owed.
Protagoras argued that if he won the case he would be paid his money. If Euathlus won the case, Protagoras would still be paid according to the original contract, because Euathlus…
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