the paradox of the grandma present

[raaaid]

1st my apologies for the other thread, farthest from my intention to be ofensive, as a matter of fact i tried to soften the original story

ill make a kids aproach now:

granma told told tommy that as he had been a good kid she would buy a present for him

she told him she would give the present to him a class day at supper time and that it WOULD CAUGHT HIM BY SURPRISE

tommy started to wonder when granma woud give him the present:

he concluded that if thursday supper passed by and grandma didnt give him the present he would know for sure it would be on friday, SO THERE WOULD BE NO SURPRISE

so friday was ruled out as the gift day

so the present could arrive on monday or tuesday or wednesday or thursday if it was to be a surpirse

but then he could use the same reasoning if wedenesday supper passed by he would know the day his grandma chose to give him the present would be thursday

and tommy went on and on and conclude grandma had lied for it could not be a surprise

yet tuesday arrive and tommy got a very nice present and indeed was surprised

so whats wrong here?

btw thanks for the lesson alpha

[tk471138]

hold on what did you say in the other thread? all i see is a few red words

as to what is wrong...did tommy get a sweater or a book, socks maybe?

[raaaid]

oh i read it otherelse as a hanged man and a judge, i adorned it being a nazi judge and a war prisoner

still alpha was spot on to tell the idea you dont need to go sinister

[tk471138]

ok i think i see what you mean that makes sense

[WTE_Galway]

hold on what did you say in the other thread? all i see is a few red words

as to what is wrong...did tommy get a sweater or a book, socks maybe?



Maybe Tommy never gets a present at all. That would sure surprise the heck out of him.

[MadBlaster]

I was brushing up on induction last night. Anyway, there is no base case here. If grandma had given Tommy a present in the past for being a good kid and it had surprised him, Tommy would not have reasoned and concluded that his grandma is a liar. Instead, he would have likely deduced something to the effect “if it happened once, it can happen again”, unless, of course, you get executed during the the base case. Oh look, grandma is giving a present...then all of a sudden ”whack” , your head chopped off. Personally, I like the execution version better. ;)

[Wolf_Rider]

simple mish mash of words...

the surprise was the gift itself (and something Tommy had not expected), not the day it was presented on


?

[major_setback]

Any present from a a granny would be surprising if it wasn't a bad Stylistics record, a bad jumper, a pair of socks, or a bad pair of underwear.

[raaaid]

simple mish mash of words...

the surprise was the gift itself (and something Tommy had not expected), not the day it was presented on


?

yeah i mess up the story lets say grand ma told him it woud be a toy pinball, the surprise WOULD BE THE DAY OF THE PRESENT

[Wolf_Rider]

That does change the whole scenario then, Raaaid. A bit like moving or omitting a comma can, eh?


So the surprise is; grandma remembered?

[raaaid]

yeah the surprise is the day the present is given, its known to be a toy pinball (the best present i ever had :)

[Wolf_Rider]

The day would have to be the Friday, because it was reasoned away that it couldn't happen that day and it was surprising and completely unexpected to have it turn up on that day :grin:

Unless of course, Saturday is a class day :rolleyes: