9 Paradoxes from Mental Floss

Paradoxes—one of the few things that unite stoned high schoolers and premier quantum physicists. There are several well-known paradoxes that have popped up in pop culture over the years. Whether it’s those based in causality aspects of time travel or a cheeky take on a Zen koan.

Some of them are rooted in mathematic theories or even the limitations of physical definitions. Most of them are really meant as thought exercises. Will people ever be forced to prove an indisputable resolution to the lying ways of an Italian puppet? Unlikely. But exploring questions of logic, rules, identity, and possibilities allows for expansive approaches to ageless topics that provide multiple perspectives and invite citing various philosophers and scientists and religious figures to see how different periods in humanity’s history from different angles would’ve approached this same question. In essence, it’s a journey through the mind that links to the minds of everyone that has come before you and probably everyone that will follow you.

Mental Floss has assembled nine such intriguing paradoxes. Host Erin McCarthy walks through these cognitive curveballs to demonstrate their origins, their most popular variations, and why they are actually worth considering from scientific and philosophical stances. Some of them are probably well known to you by now—but a few are new (or at least will have new-to-you alternate versions) and hopefully will launch into the type of circuitous debate that is best accompanied by frantic drawings on a chalkboard, a bag of Funyuns, or both.

Be sure to follow Mental Floss on YouTube and on Twitter, as well as follow host McCarthy on Twitter as well.