Logically answerable questions, but brain busters all others

Philosophy Forums Psychology and Mind
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  1. Whats the sound of one hand clapping?

  2. If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

  3. Does a mirror give a reflection if you don’t look at it?

  4. Does the world move while your not watching it?

  5. What is the answer to the problem : 0/0

This could be a fun post, lets see what happens.

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  1. Whats the sound of one hand clapping?

well as bart simpson says you can keep your fingers straight and slap them into your palm and it claps

sound is created by friction. friction requires moer than one object to move and rub into another another to agitate the air molecules and make them wave around. no friction no sound.

these are the same question. i dont like them. most sciences assume that things happen while not being observed, therefore things happened before 30,000bc such as the creation of the earth which today apparently exists and most likely made sounds along the way.

im sure its a matter of finding a way to use light to measure the presence of sound waves, creating a sound in a sound proof chamber and then measuring the presence of sound with the light. sounds pointless huh?

well the easiest way to visualize division is to imagine you are holding 10 apples. you want to divide 10 by 2, so you then imagine 2 crates. how many apples in each crate so that each crate has the same number of apples? thats the arbitrary definition of division.

now how do you evenly distribute the apples into the crates when there are no crates?

its like saying whats a round square. weve defined the terms so that that doesnt make sense

3

  1. clapping implies two things, in this case hands, coming together to make a sound. So, to say “one hand clapping” is a contradiction of the term. It is nonsense to ask this.

  2. I know monooq would disagree but, again “a tree falling” implies an impending impact of the tree with something else, the solid ground this time. An impact implies a sound? even without anyone there to hear it.

  3. The word “reflection” implies identity, such as A = A. So, something must be there to reflect off the mirror. So, A must be there so that a reflection or identity happens.

  4. Last time it was “undefined”. Division implies proportional distribution of quantity n times, n being a number other than zero—zero indicates the absence of n under consideration, hence undefined, or as my friend calls it-- “duh!”.

I have no idea. But it’s fun to answer these questions. Maybe I’ve given you dumb answers.

4

A sharp rapping sound - the english used to rap the knuckles of one hand against a piece of wood to signify applause.

Yes, a quick snap sound followed by a whoosh as it hits the ground. this has been reported to me by my spies amongst the Hurricane winds

Yes. it is the same thing you see when you line up two mirrors slightly off center - infinity

Well, if not the physicists have some explaining to do.

Zero

5

Well, this post was interesting wasn’t it…

futureman, I know they are the same question, I wanted to say how many people would give different answers on them because they saw the question a different way.

By the way:

0/0 cannot equal 0 for 0 can go into zero an unlimited amount of times, not undefined, because it is defined as the y-axis. 0/0 cannot equal infinite because yes, 0 can go into zero infinite times, but it can also goe into zero 1 tme, 2times the square root of negative one times and so on.

I would say 0/0 would equal unlimited, because thinking of the concept, zero can never reach zero because nothing is being added to it, but zero always equals zero because they are the same quantity.

Thanks guys, hope you racked your brain on these :smiley:

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Being present as far as we know may be a necessary cause.

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Answers I’ll try giving:

  1. Go ask the wind.
  2. The question is framed wrong. I and a deaf could both be in the woods and yet, I heard the tree falling but the deaf did not. So you have to ask, did you hear the sound because sound exists as a twosome, waves are created and intercepted by the receiver for resonance to occur.
  3. I’ve heard that if a mirror is not used and just collects dust then it can lose its silver and become a stone.
  4. Does the milk boil and flow out if you don’t watch it? :wink:
  5. The answer to 0/0 cannot be indeterminate as mathematicians say because we consider the numerator first. And if that is zero then we have nothing to divide, so no matter what the denominator may be, the answer to 0/0 should be 0.
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  1. wouldn’t that be the same as “if there was a lonely man that noone knew, and he knew noone, and i killed him when noone saw, did anyone get killed”
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Yes, 1 thru 4 can be fun but I find 5 to be the most interesting. Consider this before dismissing my explanation:
Numerator 0 over Denominator 0 = 0 Divided by 0 = 0 divided into 0

-Or take the concept-

Nothing divided into equal sections of nothingness

Maybe a better answer would be Infinite! For those who are mathematically fluent.

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  1. Chief one hand hasn’t clapped since he contracted dermatitis.

  2. If a tree grows without anyone watching, does it ever reach maturity?

  3. A mirror never lies, why don’t you ask it?

  4. Well, the earth moved for me babe.

  5. I’ve lost my glasses.

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I STRONGLY OBJECT !!!

…Okay, I meekly object. But can we negotiate about the word division? Because, what does division imply? Surely, we can divide zero–zero profits pay out zero revenue, no? No, problem. Now, can we divide by zero? What does division by zero imply? First off, like I said earlier, it is a proportional distribution n times. Doesn’t division require that we have the number of times something is to be divided?

Something just dawned on me about (2), tree falling…monooq was right. I have been saying something about "implication"all along, and I’ve missed this one. “Sound” is a sense-perception. Sense-perception requires a perceiver. So, the fact that we are talking about “sound” implies that, by reference, there must be a perceiver.

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I dont quite understand your problem with my answer… If you add 0 to zero you get zero, if you subtract zero from zero you get zero, if you multiply by zero, you get zero, but diciding zero is much more complicating because it equals zero:

0/0=0
but
0/0 also equals 1 (it is possible for zero to go into zero one time, try it)
0/0 also equals two for the same reason it equals 1
nothing can go into nothing as many times as you like yet nothing will never be filled. Is that right?

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Okay, one last try with my explanation-----I see that division by a number implies definitiveness, which you don’t seem to want to address, zero as a numerator does not mean the same as zero in the denominator, as a divisor.

But I wonder what you think about Future Man’s answer to this same question. He puts it very plainly, and perhaps, this is what I mean as well. Division implies there is a definite distribution, not infinite, not zero.

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Alright, I see where your coming from now… Since 0 is a nunmber it must be able to be devide x number of times, therefore you cannot divide zero into no parts. Perfectly logical, but zero deosn’t have the same meaning as other number for it is nothingness.
I think you’ll find after contemplating it for awhile that zero anf infinite, in concept, have the same meaning.

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ApocalypseOfWar said:

Well I have been contemplating it for about 10 seconds and I cant see it happening. Zero is a condition. You cannot possibly say that you can divide zero into zero over and over again because it is one number that consist of no value. It is not possible to divide a number with no value into another number with no value. Your not dividing by anything. In order to come up with the answers you have provided:

You are implying the use of different definitions for division that do not exist. You cannot logically conclude that because zero will go into itself(considering it has a value) one time, that zero can go into itself 2 times, at this point you are implying that zero(being a number that has no value) can infinetely times go into itself, but because there is no value, there cannot logically be a division. No division occurs, no infinity! Nuff said.

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What? No response to Illativemind’s post?

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Nope, he didn’t really give an answer, more like he was just trying to argue :confused:

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Cl-

No. It makes vibrations in the air, but those vibrations only becomes a sound when those waves hit the eardrum and get translated in the brain.

No. A mirror does not give you ANYTHING unless you look at it.

Yes, so you had better keep an eye on it.

E according to my calculator.

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I like your answer to number one especially, its nice to see someone actually taking this post light-hearted (as it was meant to be), as for your calculater, computers are only as smart as the people who program them lol.

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I would just like to reply to numbers 2 and 5:

  1. A tree that falls in the woods with no one around to hear it makes no sound because everything is defined by the perception of human beings. When you define sound as changing air pressure, that is a definition created by the human mind. A sound is only “made” if a human is there to hear it. This tree problem can be compared to any supernatural or religious/mythical stories. A tree that falls with no one around it is the same as an alien (or a god or God) landing on earth with no one to see it. Now, my answer up to this point can be regarded as an opinion or belief because of my last sentence. It depends on how you perceive the world. One can make a different argument if they take away human beings as the central most important figure.

The only tree that ever falls, is the tree inside your mind. We are not a creation of God, but rather, God is a creation of our mind.
Both of these statements walk the fence of belief and science and can be argued either way, which makes it philosophy :smiley:

  1. This answer is quite simple. 0/0 is defined as an indefinite form as stated before. In CALCULUS 0/0 is commonly encountered.
    I will begin with the simple definition of a derivative using the tangent line problem.
    On a curved graph (for example, y= x ^2) a tangent line can be drawn at a point. From geometry, a tangent line to a circle is defined as a line touch the circle at only one point, the line is also perpendicular to the radius going through that point.
    In calculus, the tangent line is defined by taking the point at which the tangent line is desired, and taking an arbitrary point on the graph. Then taking the slope of the line that passes through these two points. As the arbitrary point gets closer and closer to the desired point, the line becomes closer and closer to the tangent line at the desired point.
    When the arbitrary point equals the desired point, in essence what happens is 0/0. Because with two points (x1,y1) and (x2,y2) slope = (y2 - y1) / (x2 - x1) which is 0/0 when the two points are the same.

0/0 is an indefinite form, but it still has a value because the tangent line still exists and has a unique slope at different points along a curved graph.

I will not venture further on what value 0/0 is because this is high school level calculus.