Unexpected Hanging Paradox

It's a paradox because the execution will take place at exactly NOON!, thus it cannot surprise the accused. As for the days of the week, the hanging would have to take place on either Monday or Tuesday.

reply to post by Deaf Alien


by Wednesday night it could be either Thursday or Friday

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I think the judge guarantees surprise on any day of the week simply by specifying that the prisoner will be surprised.

Since if Friday comes and the prisoner is not hanged he will think there is no way he could be hanged that day since it wouldn't be a surprise.

Given that the prisoner is sure he won't be hanged on Friday, it will indeed be a surprise when he is hanged on Friday.

reply to post by UdonNiedtuno

agreed,..,,. not to mention,,, the outcome of the situation ;;;

the prisoner believes he will not be hung on any day

he is hung on wednesday.,.,,.

he is surprised

the judge was right

Originally posted by Deaf Alien
It's a logical paradox. It hasn't been resolved to this day.

Isn't it a matter of looking at the problem backwards?

Okay, Friday is out because it wouldn't be a surprise. With four possible days, this gives each day a 25% of being the right one. Then Monday goes by, making it a 33% chance that it'll be Tuesday. Since it doesn't happen on Tuesday, this makes it a 50/50 shot that it'll be Wednesday. But wait! Since Thursday couldn't be a surprise because Friday has already been ruled out, that makes Wednesday the day.

reply to post by Deaf Alien


seems to me, no matter what the prisoner concluded to be a viable unexpected option within the judges time frame..

whichever day was chosen by the judge, would conflict with said prisoners rationalizations..

and therefore be a surprise none the less..

After reading all the replies here I have made a conclusion...

I now want to hang myself!

Not a surprise!

Reply to Deaf Alien.

Hello. I'm sorry but you have not presented a paradox but a base 5 logic imposition, the concept does not contain the elements of paradox.

This is a simple paradox; Everything I say is a lie.

This is a silly joke; The Dali Llama walks into a pizza joint and asks; "Can you make me one with everything?"


This is at least a conundrum and possibly an imponderable; It is impossible to prove you, I, or anything else truly exists outside your brain because if you had no brain you would not be imagining all this, that is, if you existed.


This is just weird; Dead rock stars. If a rock star becomes famous in his early 20's, the more popular his music, the greater the chance he will die at 27 years of age. This is a statistical anomaly.

In this same vein.

Microbiologists have been dying at an actuarially impossible rate for the last 11 years. The higher quality of their work and experimentation from the norm seems a predictor of mortality.
These Microbiologists die of accident and misadventure, an insurance industry study suggested the rate of violent deaths of these scientists cannot be within rational percentages.
Question: Is someone killing Microbiologists?
If so Whom, and why?
Only a few are obviously intentional killings by unknown actors, the rest die in mysterious circumstances but no clues as to the involvement of unknown actors.

WHY?
Voyager 1 ceased it's forward motion over a period of weeks and is accelerating in the direction it came from.

P=5< A ~ 1^0-H 571.93757801.6420(Hs203)+9Delta Tetra H/C ? AA Ref P1@LaGrange

Echo off

Originally posted by Deaf Alien
reply to post by seedofchucky

 

Would be no different if Judge said tommorw , but doesn't give him the time . Could be any hour surprise .

The point is the prisoner wouldn't be surprised. Judge tells him that tomorrow he'll be executed any time tomorrow but the prisoner doesn't know when. But will any time be a surprise to him?

What is one persons "surprised" reaction is not the same as everyone else .

Judge tells him tommorow he will be executed anytime.

Now

If he cares , he will be like lets play a game.

I really believe i will be executed at 1 p.m

But its actually 9a.m. He hears the Knock.



he says omg i was thinking 1 p.m what a surprise ! i was wrong ! .

Thats one guy's surprise ,

Another dude .

Oh i'm gonna be executed tommorow , but the judge won't tell me what time , he says it will be a surprise .


I'm gonna die tommorw , between now and 24 hours, do i really care when ? no. Screw the judges surprise time , i'm ready anytime.


9 a.m comes , he wakes up says damn i don't even get to eat lunch , oh well lets get it over with.


no paradox , just your reference of "surprise" . Your looking too much into it , and your trying to find a paradox . Sometimes we get carried away ..


f

Somebody tell me if I am rendering down the question falsely, but the question is a bit muddled
and confusing as is.

Suppose the question this way....

A man is told that something will happen at (one) of five specific times....and that he will not be able
to tell which specific time this thing will happen (a surprise)...the tacit implication is that the thing
cannot happen UNLESS it is a surprise, but that must be taken as a given---it is not stipulated

specific times are....a, b, c, d, and e

e cannot be a surprise as it is the last choice
d cannot be a surprise as it is the only choice left after e is ruled out
c cannot be a surprise as it is the only choice left after e and d are ruled out
b cannot be a surprise as it is the only choice left after e, d, and c are ruled out
a cannot be a surprise as it is the only choice left after e, d, c, and b are ruled out

So no paradox because of the poorly worded question. The question must stipulate that the thing
cannot happen unless it is a surprise...and there can be no surprise if that stipulation
is one of the parameters


ETA to add....but wouldn't it be a surprise if the thing happened when logic dictated that it could not?

...damn schizophrenia is kicking in again

reply to post by seedofchucky

no paradox , just your reference of "surprise" . Your looking too much into it , and your trying to find a paradox . Sometimes we get carried away ..

Yep...you nailed right there.

My above post was all logically illogical.

Reason, even if the execution cannot happen unless it is a surprise, the execution could happen
on any day, because if the prisoner has ruled out Friday as a possible day of execution
and is happily awaiting his release on Thursday afternoon, then a Friday execution would certainly be
a surprise...

It's not really a paradox. It's just flawed logic on the part of the prisoner.

Also, it is quite interesting.

There is no paradox.

I'm sure in this example...both parties are supposed to be 100% logical.

If the Judge knows that the prisoner is 100% logical, then he knows the prisoner will use induction to conclude that he won't be surprised on any day. So the Judge can pick any day and surprise the prisoner.

I find this somewhat boring, if you are told something is going to surprise you, then you must understand that when you think you will not be surprised then you will be surprised, you know this and the person who will surprise you knows this so its not a surprise. Surprise can only happen when one party does not know or understand it will happen. Since both partys knew it would happen its no surprise. No paradox here.

reply to post by Deaf Alien


By using logic and thinking he knows the day, he doesn't know the day at all. Surprise. (Judge musta known prisoner was a statistician.) Judge never promised to 'obey logic,' so there is no contradiction.

Simple. No paradox.

Perhaps the term "surprise" is too ambiguous. Knowing would be better.

This quote is where we got this from...

"A CIVIL DEFENSE EXERCISE WILL BE HELD THIS WEEK. IN ORDER TO MAKE SURE THAT THE CIVIL-DEFENSE UNITS ARE PROPERLY PREPARED, NO ONE WILL KNOW IN ADVANCE ON WHAT DAY THIS EXERCISE WILL TAKE PLACE."

A math professor noticed that something is wrong with this announcement. Can you see what's wrong with it?

There is no paradox here. This is just a semantic puzzle. If the judge had just said he will hang but we haven't decided when, it's the same scenario. When the judge said the day of the hanging would be a surprise s/he was really saying the time of the hanging will be disclosed only moments before the hanging occurs. Call that a surprise if you will, but it's no paradox. The judge is a sadistic psychopath who preys on the prisoner's sense of hope and instinct for self-preservation to create false hope, mental pain, and anxiety.

The prisoner is no zen master. If he was, then the concept of "surprise" would not exist for him. He would live in the moment, "be here now", and experience the events fully as they occur.

I don't consider myself to be an idiot but am certainly not a genius by a long shot, however this entire thread has confused the living hell out of me...

Originally posted by Deaf Alien
reply to post by SoymilkAlaska

 

It's the paradox. Basically both can't be right.

No its not a paradox. The flaw in the logic is in working backwards as if all events are linked. They are not. Every day in the week is a new day and for four of those days there are multiple days on which an event can occur. Therefore on each of those 4 days nobody can know which day will be chosen. Therfore when it is it will come as a suprise.