Since ancient times, man has been trying to understand the world around him and his place in it. Using logical thinking, the inquisitive mind of a human being tried to find the essence and interconnection of ongoing events and phenomena. The modern knowledge of mankind is the result of almost ten millennia of painstaking analysis of everything that the researcher of the surrounding world has encountered.
What is a paradox?
Over time, knowledge was revealed that provided a more complete understanding of the resulting events or phenomena. However, despite this, there are exceptions when something happens but does not find a logical explanation. In the modern world, science refers to such a phenomenon as a paradox. Translated from Greek, "paradox" (παράδοξος) is unexpected, strange.
This definition appeared quite a long time ago, at the dawn of the development of our civilization. Modern science says that a paradox is a situation or event that is characterized by a clear manifestation in reality and the complete absence of any logical explanation.results.
The paradoxes that have arisen have always excited and intrigued the mind of a person with their contradictions and ambiguity. Despite the lack of explanation, a person tries to find and solve the problem that has arisen before him. Over time, some paradoxes have lost the status of inexplicable and moved into a clear logical field of understanding. Next, we will touch on some “dark” corners of knowledge that are still incomprehensible today. We hope that over time it will become clear to us what lies behind this and what are the nature and properties of the occurring phenomenon.
Physics paradoxes
Physics is a science that is rich in paradoxes. They are found in various areas of science: thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, quantum mechanics. Let's give examples of some of them in a way accessible to the reader.
- Archimedes paradox: a huge ship can float in several liters of water.
- Tea leaf paradox: after stirring the tea, all the tea leaves gather in the center of the cup, which contradicts the centrifugal force. Under its action, they should move to the walls. But that doesn't happen
- Mlemba's paradox: hot water, under certain conditions, can freeze faster than cold water.
- D'Alembert's paradox: a spherical body receives no resistance when moving in an ideal fluid.
- The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox: events far apart have mutual influence.
- Schrödinger's cat: a quantum paradox. The cat is in two states (neither alive nor dead) until we look at it.
- Disappearance of information in a black hole: information is destroyed when it enters a black hole.
- The origin paradox: when traveling through time, the question arises as to what comes first, objects or information.
There are other very mysterious paradoxes of physics.
Where else can there be paradoxes?
A large amount of "dark" knowledge exists in various areas of our lives. It can be found in logic, mathematics and statistics, geometry, chemistry. In addition, there are philosophical, economic, legal, psychophysical paradoxes.
With the advent of understanding the possibility of moving in time in any direction (modern science theoretically confirms this possibility), strange conclusions related to such travels flooded in an avalanche. For example, the well-known grandfather paradox. It says that if you go back in time and kill your grandfather, you will not be born. Accordingly, you cannot kill your grandfather.
Quantum physics - the realm of paradoxes
With the advent of a new direction in physics, the number of paradoxes has increased significantly. According to scientists, you can either believe in it or not understand it. Quantum physics does not support the existing laws known to us and consists of continuous paradoxes that contradict our common sense. For example, one particle can affect another regardless of distance (quantum entanglement). The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox includes not only the phenomenon of the interdependence of the state of particles, but also the impossibilitysimultaneous measurement of the position and state of an elementary particle.
In a word, quantum physics is considered the queen of the realm of the incomprehensible.
Logic without logic
Where else do strange events and phenomena occur? Let's dive into mathematics and its theory of probability. Monty Hall's paradox is well known. It was first voiced in 1990.
It got its name in honor of the TV presenter of one game show, where players were given the choice of the door behind which the prize is hidden.
If you describe in simple terms, the situation is as follows: when a player changes his choice after the host's suggestion, the course of further events changes. Although, according to the theory of probability, the result should have an equivalence of chances. For a better understanding, look at the diagram showing the results of the player's choice and their relationship.
As a rule, a paradox is an unexpected result that cannot be explained in a logical way. Hall's paradox is by far not the only example of logical contradictions found in the field of probability theory. Found more than a dozen inexplicable and strange phenomena. For example, two independent events will be conditionally dependent if one of them does not happen. This phenomenon is called Berkson's paradox.
In a word, a paradox is a discrepancy between the obtained and the expected result.
The possible nature of the occurrence of strange events: the theory of paradoxes
The scientific world today continues to deal with the nature and essence of the occurrence of such phenomena. There are several assumptions that give the possibility of the existence of "dark" knowledge in various areas of information.
- According to a simpler and more accessible version, they arise due to incomplete knowledge of the mechanisms or algorithms of nature, or the logical foundation of thinking.
- According to another version, this method of constructing the analysis is not correct, but at the moment it is quite acceptable. In simple terms, we use logical thinking incorrectly, but today this style is quite applicable to humanity. As the course of the development of civilization shows, this is exactly what happened in the past, but such changes proceed imperceptibly and rather slowly.
- There is another hypothesis explaining the cause of paradoxes. It says that if we encounter paradoxes, then this indicates the predestination of the future.
The explanation is this: if a certain phenomenon is predetermined in the future, then a person cannot change or influence it, regardless of their knowledge and ideas. Because of this, in some cases, events occur, the result of which is contrary to logical understanding.
Conclusion
We cannot clearly say what is the real reason for the occurrence of such strange events or phenomena. However, we can say for sure that the paradox is the "engine" of knowledge. Faced with unexpected results, many scientists and researchers embark onon a long and difficult journey in search of the truth of this world and your place in it.
