One liners

[Jen Aside]

To succeed at failing is both failing and succeeding. If the question were more specific, there wouldn't be a seeming contradiction.

"Did I succeed when I attempted to fail and, in fact, did fail?" "Yes, I succeeded at my attempt."



or, I guess,

"Did I fail when I attempted to fail but, in fact, succeeded?" "Yes, I failed at my attempt."

[ctrlaltdel]

well i believe as it is stated it is a paradox, which means that the answer is - there is no answer. kinda like the crocodiles paradox or the barbers paradox.

your other answers are all good - b, h, i, and we can consider "a" out of the way too and "c" has been posted on the forum already

about the 8 kids sharing a cake... uhm... its supper time...

[jwok]

hi...im new to this thread but ill throw my two cents in....


to answer the blackbird post, i'd guess four remain (a 7th of 28(2x4 + 20))

as to that crazy success/fail question...

i think there is no paradox. Success and failure is dependent on something to be succeeding and failing at. If you attempt to fail (at SOMETHING, say riding a bike) and are succesful at doing so then you are BOTH succeeding and failing, more specifically, succeeding at failing to ride a bike and failing at riding a bike. Well, that's my take on it at least.


And to add to this thread, here's a coupla oneliners I learned in a class last semester:

1. Everybody loves baby but baby loves nobody but me. Who am I?
2. (a paradox? for all those agnostics and atheists out there)
Bread is better than nothing. Nothing is better than God. Therefore, Bread is better than God.

[ctrlaltdel]

all paradoxs are about the same thing more or less. take the famous barber one. if you insist that he is more a barber than a man, then you have the answer, if you insist he is more man than a barber, you got a clear answer again. the thing is, you cannot separate the two. hence, paradox.

[Athene]

For the blackbirds: I think none remain.
There are 28 at first, he shots 4 of them and the rest flies up into the air -- unless they are all deaf and blind or their wings are broken.

[Jen Aside]

Four is the book answer. A seventh of 28 is 4, and the rest fly away, so the ones that remain are the ones that are dead.

[jwok]

Ctrlaltdel - not to be argumentative (but I will be, anyways....=))but i stand firm that the success/failure 'paradox' is really no paradox. A paradox, by definition, is an irreconcilable or self contradicting situation. And yes, to succeed and fail AT SOMETHING (my main point, still...) is self-contradictory. But, I still cannot stress that this situation is about success and failure in two different areas. If you both succeeded and failed at riding a bike, then, yes, by golly, it would be a paradox.

On another note, maybe I'm too young or just plain naive' (or both...) but I have absolutley not one iota of what those supposedly infamous barber and crocodile paradoxes really are, though I don't think they'll elucidate me more on paradoxes. I also think some paradoxes are of differnt ilks than others. Take mathematical and physical; i see little similarity (other than the virtue of being a paradox) the argument most likely lingering somewhere on this site that 1=0 and the seemingly contradictory loop of travelling back in time and killing yourself.

j

[Jen Aside]

Web searches are your friend

But...

"A barber in a town shaves all men who don't shave themselves and does not shave any man who shaves himself. Does the barber shave himself or not?"

Of course, if the barber is a woman, then no but the paradox exists if the barber is indeed a man.

[ctrlaltdel]

http://www.geocities.com/galois_e/page/paradox.html

see more of paradox and how they (not) work

[Chuck]

There is no paradox if the barber is a man. It just means that the statement is false. There is no such barber.