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#1 2009-03-14 17:53:18
- MathsIsFun
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- Registered: 2005-01-21
- Posts: 7,711
Unexpected hanging paradox
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexpected_hanging_paradox
It could never be a Friday ... nor a Thursday, right?
So not a Wednesday, too?
"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..." - Leon M. Lederman
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#2 2009-03-14 19:15:59
- Jai Ganesh
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- Registered: 2005-06-28
- Posts: 46,317
Re: Unexpected hanging paradox
'he will be hung at noon on one weekday in the following week but that the execution will be a surprise to the prisoner. He will not know the day of the hanging until the executioner knocks on his cell door at noon that day.'
There was no flaw in the prisoner's reasoning.
But the authorities were too smart for him. He was certain he couldn't be hanged on anyday of the week, and the executioner knocking at his door was, indeed, a surprise to him!
I didn't read the entire page however!
It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.
Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.
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