tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10953736.post113717000573680631..comments2023-08-26T03:56:42.607-04:00Comments on The metamorphosis of a Hacker: Riddle...Sridhar Iyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15748449920523042841noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10953736.post-1137181733989225492006-01-13T14:48:00.000-05:002006-01-13T14:48:00.000-05:00Commenting on my comment above, the moral is that ...Commenting on my comment above, the moral is that the professor's statement manages to be a paradox and a non-paradox at the same time, which gives us another paradox. Extending the logic, we have an infinite recursion of paradoxes! The end of the world is near!!<BR/><BR/>VinayakAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10953736.post-1137181465281282812006-01-13T14:44:00.001-05:002006-01-13T14:44:00.001-05:00He has not used induction in the way you are compr...He has not used induction in the way you are comprehending it. He proves it for friday, then he does for thursday and so on (well it is induction) but he is not assuming that it is true for day X.... he proves it, so it is different from the normal induction based on assumption... and context-bias also makes no sense as he assumes fri>thur>wed>...>monday . I dont see whats wrong with that.<BR/><BR/>And if I am wrong and you did solve the question, then I guess u solved an unsolvable question, and proved Godel's theory of incompleteness false. I guess the statement is a paradox of some kind. Infact the whole book from which it is extracted, contains unsolvable riddlesSridhar Iyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15748449920523042841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10953736.post-1137181452210806322006-01-13T14:44:00.000-05:002006-01-13T14:44:00.000-05:00I don't agree with the first comment. The prof's s...I don't agree with the first comment. The prof's statement is inherently paradoxical, a bit like saying "This statement is false" . If that statement were true, then it would be false at the same time... or vice versa. Much the same way, with his paradoxical announcement, the prof ensures that the students really have no idea when the test is going to be, somehow making a paradox come true... whew!<BR/><BR/>VinayakAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10953736.post-1137174280620492142006-01-13T12:44:00.000-05:002006-01-13T12:44:00.000-05:00It's an incorrect use of induction. You tend to th...It's an incorrect use of induction. You tend to think he's doing that, but the thinking is all wrong.<BR/>Using induction, you would first prove that it's true for Friday. Then you would have to prove that if day X can't be a quiz day => day X - 1 can't either. That statement is obviously false.<BR/>The key is to realize that X => X - 1 lacks context (specific days), while the reasoning used by the student is context-biased (Friday -> Thursday, etc). He's building a stairway to heaven with 2 steps. Damn, that was deep.<BR/>Cool riddle. Tried to resist but I couldn't. I love those.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13441809988487585009noreply@blogger.com