talkmagic.co.uk

sleightlycrazy wrote:We can't travel through time by our choice [will], there.

I choose and will myself to travel in time...forwards...constantly...

...but time does not exist, it is a mere notion manifested in our minds.

one fine day in the middle of the night,
two dead men got up to fight,
back to back they faced each other
drew their swords...
and shot each other...

and old rhyme my mum used to sing to me...

could be used for a card routine i suppose...

One fine day in the middle of the night
Two dead boys got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other

One was blind and the other couldn't see
So they chose a dummy for a referee.
A blind man went to see fair play
A dumb man went to shout "hooray!"

A paralysed donkey passing by
Kicked the blind man in the eye
Knocked him through a nine inch wall
Into a dry ditch and drowned them all

A deaf policeman heard the noise
And came to arrest the two dead boys
If you don't believe this story’s true,
Ask the blind man he saw it too!"

This is the version that I heard when I was younger

AndyRegs wrote:

However, when you know (and understand) the answer, it's fairly straightforward (ish ).

I think the beauty of it is that even when you know the answer, it still feels wrong, which is why countless mathmaticians got it so wrong. It counter intuitive.

That's probability for ya. the odds of winning the lottery are about 14million to 1, and the odds of exactly the same 6 numbers coming up 2 weeks in a row is.... 14million to 1. try explaining that to someone who doesn't really have a grasp of maths. sheesh!

As I was walking on the stairs,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I think he's from the CIA.

Aye, probability is a reet bu**er for most people. The chances of having the same birthday as someone else in a room full of (thinks back, probably inaccurately) 30 people is 50%. A proper bona fide miracle is defined as a 1 in 1 million chance. Watch how many miracles happen in a single 90 minute period every Saturday afternoon, where all the elements that make the goal happen, from initial kick, to imperfections in the turf, to the reactions of other players, the positioning of the goal posts, etc. all come together in what should be completely impossible ways

The so-called Grandfather time travel paradox is easily resolved, however. It seems all you have to do is travel sideways into a parallel universe where reality is that you have already travelled back in time. Going forwards is easy, however: it's called waiting

Tomo wrote:The chances of having the same birthday as someone else in a room full of (thinks back, probably inaccurately) 30 people is 50%.

ah...the odds there are incorrect. The odds of having the same birthday as someone else in the room when there are 30 people is highly unlikely...but the odds of two people having the same birthday was a lot more likely

work that one out

Blapsing_Beard wrote:

Tomo wrote:The chances of having the same birthday as someone else in a room full of (thinks back, probably inaccurately) 30 people is 50%.

ah...the odds there are incorrect. The odds of having the same birthday as someone else in the room when there are 30 people is highly unlikely...but the odds of two people having the same birthday was a lot more likely

the beard is absolutely correct.

I'm noticing the massive lack of paradoxes in this thread!

Blapsing_Beard wrote:

Tomo wrote:The chances of having the same birthday as someone else in a room full of (thinks back, probably inaccurately) 30 people is 50%.

ah...the odds there are incorrect. The odds of having the same birthday as someone else in the room when there are 30 people is highly unlikely...but the odds of two people having the same birthday was a lot more likely

work that one out

Bah - I was gonna correct him, but you beat me to it .

Kenneth wrote:Here's a paradox:

In reality, you can never move anywhere-
To get to from one place to another, you must get halfway there.
To get halfway to the place, you must get halfway to halfway.
You must get half-way to that place.. and so on...
So, you would infinatly have to go halfway, making it impossible to get anywhere...

This is one of Zeno's paradoxes. The reason why it's wrong boils down to the fact that 1/infinity is 0 (look, it just is!). There's a really good explanation here

If you have 20 dollars and want to buy two DVDs worth 25$. You decide to buy the DVD worth $15 dollars and get 5$ change. Can you get in a time machine with that 5 dollars, give it to yourself and pay for both DVDs?

This reminds me of a film I watched a couple of weeks ago, and it's already brought on a headache...Anyone who likes paradoxes, enjoys concentrating very hard on films and gets a perverse kick out of being utterly confused should search out Primer. Trying to keep track of what's going in is a bit like trying to stay on one of those bronco rides. I got comprehensively thrown off just after the hour mark the first time I watched it. Even now......oh dear. Where's the Neurofen?

Kenneth wrote:Here's a paradox:
In reality, you can never move anywhere-
To get to from one place to another, you must get halfway there.
To get halfway to the place, you must get halfway to halfway.
You must get half-way to that place.. and so on...
So, you would infinatly have to go halfway, making it impossible to get anywhere...

Relativity is a crazy thing aye. i remember an old similar problem about how if Hercules was to race a Tortoise and the tortoise set off first then hercules could ever win (even the race was over a mile and hercules set off only 1 second after the tortoise), basically the same arguement. but basically, it's rubbish

Charles Calthrop wrote:This is one of Zeno's paradoxes. The reason why it's wrong boils down to the fact that 1/infinity is 0 (look, it just is!).

oh it is now is it? even though you can't divide by infinity?
I can see where you're coming from though, but for the sake of arguements you may as well say it is zero. it makes sense, in most peoples heads.

Blapsing_Beard wrote:ah...the odds there are incorrect. The odds of having the same birthday as someone else in the room when there are 30 people is highly unlikely...but the odds of two people having the same birthday was a lot more likely

work that one out

Well, I did say "thinks back, probably inaccurately". I couldn't be ar*ed to look it up and do it properly

Lawrence wrote:oh it is now is it? even though you can't divide by infinity?
I can see where you're coming from though, but for the sake of arguements you may as well say it is zero. it makes sense, in most peoples heads.

Can't decide whether you're agreeing with me or not, but yes it is. For pretty much the same reason that 0.999... = 1 (look, it just does!).

Btw, here's an interesting fact for you. The symbol for infinity (looks like an 8 rotated through 90 degrees and has a proper name which escapes me) is associated with the magician card in certain Tarot decks. Furthermore, it's probably derived from the tail-devouring snake Ourobouros. You can try and drop this into your patter while you're performing Ourobouros by Jack Parker.

Charles Calthrop wrote:

Lawrence wrote:oh it is now is it? even though you can't divide by infinity?
I can see where you're coming from though, but for the sake of arguements you may as well say it is zero. it makes sense, in most peoples heads.

Can't decide whether you're agreeing with me or not, but yes it is. For pretty much the same reason that 0.999... = 1 (look, it just does!).

given the situation I'm agreeing with you. 1/inifinity is 0. kind of.
were i around mathematicians i would be saying that you can't actually divide by infinity given that it isn't a number (same reasoning why you can't divide by zero). it would be like trying to divide 1 by A Badger, it just doesn't work (when you get really into it)
but since I'm not surrounded by mathematicians anymore i'll happily agree that it equals zero. (in the same way that anything divided by zero is infinity ey? or anything times zero equals zero )

edit: i think the infinity symbol is called a Lemniscate, although i'd just say "infinity"

But 'i' isn't a number either. That doesn't mean you can't do maths with it; it's not a badger. That isn't to say that you can't do maths with badgers though.

Anything divided by infinity is zero. Really. Except for infinity. That would be 1. Agreed that infinity is actually just a concept (a useful one), but the truth of this follows from its definition as a concept.

'Lemniscate'! That's the badger!

Edit: I typed that as lower-case-I but the forum won't let it be.