I like that, very clever. Took me a couple of minutes.emeraldemon wrote:Most of y'all have probably seen this one...
Why is the citric acid cycle called a cycle?
Because it goes round.
I like that, very clever. Took me a couple of minutes.emeraldemon wrote:Most of y'all have probably seen this one...
Trolling the troll thread? SubtleLiisa wrote:I do not know how Hegel proved it, but there really is seven planets. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and seventh Neptune. Earth-Moon system is a double planet, so it should not be counted as a planet in singular.hyperpape wrote:Hegel trolled astronomy by giving an a priori proof that there were seven planets. And I just trolled philosophy by mentioning it.
Funnily, I saw this one mentioned as an example in set theory... (probably not aimed for children). It goes as follows:tundra wrote:More for children than adults:
Q: Which is better, a peanut butter sandwich, or eternal happiness?
A: A peanut butter sandwich, of course.
Proof: Most would agree, that nothing is better than eternal happiness. But on the other hand, a peanut butter sandwich is certainly better than nothing. (Just ask a hungry person.)
Ergo, a peanut butter sandwich is better than eternal happiness.

Hegel's proof that there are seven planets (or more specifically, that there is no planet between Mars and Jupiter) is quite funny. There is a vague (verrry vague) regularity in the spacing of the planets called Bode's Law. It's hard to even express what the relationship is with an equation, which shows how dodgy the law is. However, on any formulation of Bode's law there is a large error term for each entry in the sequence, and - oh yes - one step in the sequence doesn't have a planet in it.Liisa wrote:I do not know how Hegel proved it, but there really is seven planets. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and seventh Neptune. Earth-Moon system is a double planet, so it should not be counted as a planet in singular.hyperpape wrote:Hegel trolled astronomy by giving an a priori proof that there were seven planets. And I just trolled philosophy by mentioning it.
bah already saw it on redditAraban wrote:It was only a matter of time: http://www.urlesque.com/2010/10/25/i-sh ... professor/
This reminds me of another favorite troll: Why are you alive right now, and not in the far future? The human population is increasing exponentially. If it continues to increase, or even if it stays steady in the future, then the probability of you being born so close to the beginning of human history is almost zero. Surely if in the future humanity spreads throughout the galaxy and there're trillions of people alive at any one time, you're almost certain to be born then and not now.jts wrote:
Have you ever wondered if you were actually a brain in a vat? Or maybe a body in a vat, like in the Matrix? Well, don't worry. If you were actually a brain in a vat, you would never have seen any actual brains, or any actual vats, for that matter. In fact, if you were just a brain in a vat, you'd have no way of knowing that brains, or vats, really existed! If you think about it, if you don't know anything about what sorts of objects actually exist, on the whole it's highly unlikely that the sort of objects which you believe exist, actually exist. (After all, for every object that actually exists, there are millions of objects that only exist in our imaginations.)
So if you were a brain in a vat, then it would be almost certain that there were no such things as brains or vats; and if brains and vats don't actually exist, then you definitely aren't a brain in a vat.
Aren't you reassured?