I’m back! After a long break! And we are going to talk about impossible problems! Math problems (or other problem types) that just can’t be solved (as in having one answer)! Some could also be called paradoxes! Let’s start with a simple one:
_ + 7 = _ + 7
_ = ?
What is the blank?! Hmmm… let’s try a few numbers…
1 + 7 = 1 + 7 –> 8 = 8… So blank = 1!
Wait a second…
2 + 7 = 2 + 7 –> 9 = 9. So blank could also be two!
Or three…
3 + 7 = 3 + 7 –> 10 = 10
Or a billion…
1,000,000,000 + 7 = 1,000,000,000 + 7 –> 1,000,000,007 = 1,000,000,007.
So the blank could be any number! There are infinity possible answers!
Let’s turn up the craziness…
“It’s opposite day.”
It can’t be opposite day if its opposite day, cause you mean the opposite of what you say! But you if it’s not opposite day, how can you mean the opposite of what you said? PARADOX!
Figure this one out:
“I’m lying”
And the craziest of them all…
“The next sentence was true. The last sentence was false.”
This is super crazy! It’s saying the next sentence is true, but then it says that was false! Mind-blowing!
See if you can come up with some paradoxes! Signing off – MATHinfinity
*Paradoxes provided by Jonah.