Below are the names of 10 scientific or philosophical principles. Five of them are real, honest-to-goodness principles with more-or-less accurate definitions. Three of them are real principles, but with incorrect definitions. Two of them are utter nonsense. Which is which?1. Avogadro's Constant: The number of guacamole molecules that can fit in a pan the size of my head.
2. Descartes' Oven: The notion that if one has one's head in an oven and feet in an icebox, on average one is quite comfortable.
3. Schrodinger's Cat: A cat in a box which must be considered both alive and dead until it is weighted with bricks and thrown in the river.
4. Buriden's Ass: A donkey who starves to death because he's too stupid to choose between two equidistant piles of grain. It's grain, you stupid ass! Just pick one!
5. Russell's Paradox: The fact that all sets are necessarily missing one piece, because McDonald's always runs out of the Happy Meal toy you really want.
6. Occam's Razor: The principle that any problem can be solved by removing enough unwanted hair.
7. Pavlov's Dogs: Dogs who probably would have disappointed to find out that they were made famous by being able to drool on queue.
8. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle: A principle that dictates that you cannot know where your socks are and how fast they are traveling at the same time.
9. Pascal's Wager: The proposition that you might as well believe in God, because if He doesn't exist, then nobody is going to care what you thought in a hundred years anyway.
10. Hegel's Dictum: The theory that the truth of a statement is enhanced by the number of dependent clauses it contains.
Scroll down for answers....
ANSWERS
1. False (No, really?)
2. Nonsense
3. True (What, it's the only way to settle the issue)
4. True (Buriden didn't give asses enough credit)
5. False (Although they do)
6. False (And yet, still a good rule of thumb)
7. True (Assuming dogs care about such things)
8. True (Generally not applied to socks, but still true)
9. True (There's a bit more to it, of course)
10. Nonsense(As is most of his work)
How did you do?
Labels: Quizzes
| posted by Diesel at Saturday, December 02, 2006 |
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Well...I got the Descartes and Pascal one correct...'cause I'm a math teacher.
I got Pavlov, because' that's famous.
I got the avocado one, because that sounded too good to be true.
4 out of 10. Not my best showing.
All together in the Philosopher's Song, now:
"Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiimanueal Kant was a real pissant...."
Check that...I also got Occam correct. I probably would have gotten Hegel, but I accidentally scrolled down and saw the answer, so I won't take credit.
5/10
"...who was very rarely stable...."
I didn't do very well because I thought they were all true. I'm a dreamer; D
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Oh, how I wish Avogadro's number was about guacamole! How I hated that man in high school chemistry.
Good list ... I felt rather dorky knowing what all of them were except for Russell's Paradox. However, once I looked it up, I wish I hadn't ... as I've been accused of being a 'naive set' myself:
"The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox."
If true, at least I can be glad that I am not a member of someone else!
;)
1. I even remember it: 6.02 x 10^23, or roughly the size of my overdraft.
Like "Say No to Crack", I goofed on Russel's Paradox. Embarrassing, since I even know what set theory is.
I'll redeem myself, and gain a reputation as a pedant in the bargain by pointing out that in 7, "they were made famous by being able to drool on queue", you clearly mean "cue", therefore the definition is false.
Cheers
-wolfe
Joel - I'll give you Hegel. Still, you should probably hit the books tonight.
Goldennib - Maybe they all are true, in a way. But probably not.
G - I know what you're up to, you little scamp!
Crack - While researching for this post I also ran across something called "Feynman's sprinkler". Just be glad I didn't include that one.
Wolfe - You know, it felt wrong while I was typing "queue," but for some reason my brain wouldn't offer another spelling. So you're right, the dogs did not drool while waiting in line at the DMV, as far as I know.
And to paraphrase Groucho Marx - "I wouldn't join any set that would have me as a member."
Came over to recommend a book, who knew I'd have to take a test? Sheesh... I'll get back to you once I've recovered from my failure.
I made a book recommendation for you. It bet you don't know what it is.
Funny stuff. Diesel, you're a screwball. If you had a mean streak an no hair, you'd be Lex Luthor.
Don't forget Planck's Constant, devised purely because nobody else could think of anything to do with an "h".
Kat - Sorry, I had to make up for the no-pressure contest. People were getting lazy.
One person who is NOT lazy is Goldennib, who tragically misunderstood the rules of the contest, thinking that she needed to WRITE A NOVEL to get me to read it. Which I will do, of course.
Thanks, Al. It's odd, because the "Which Superhero Are You" quiz told me I'm Superman. Maybe they are strange attractors.
Didn't Kant come up with a Principle of Sufficient Raisins or something like that?
I always thought the Feynman Sprinkler was a funny name. I took a couple physics classes while at Cornell, and they idolized that guy (for good reason I thought).
GS - Actually it's generally attributed to Leibniz, and for those of you who don't know, it's the "principle of sufficient reason." GS apparently still remembers the cartoon I drew in college of Immanuel Kant muttering, "2 scoops, my ass!" (Thus discovering the Principle of Sufficient Raisins)
Crack - I actually have no idea what a Feynman Sprinkler is. I may look into them when I do my lawn next fall though.