Today we had contact with the Unexpected Hanging Problem (http://lesswrong.com/lw/3zd/resolving_the_unexpected_hanging_paradox/) because of LinkedIn (Math, Math Education, Math Culture, A
Logical Reasoning Problem, discussion proposed by Prof. Dr. Fuchun Huang).
Interesting enough that nobody seems to take notice of the most basic things in this type of problem.
We must assume that we are indeed Very Important People
(VIPs), we reckon, and we must then say that at least the Who’s Who Marquis and
the IBC had the bravery and the wisdom of printing that we are such in their
books, which list our most important personalities.
In plain terms, this problem is quite simple.
Yes, what they write is true. Oh, well, it is also untrue, like
part to one side and part to the other.
Basically, If we are on a Thursday before 4:30 PM, say,
supposing that it takes us 30 minutes to get it all done, from picking the
victim at the cell to hanging, then the hanging can still happen on the same
day and it will surprise us because it might happen on the own Thursday or on
Friday, according to the variables we have been given.
The same will happen with all days of the week, trivially,
and this is, according to Science, the right way to see it. Moreover, because there is surprise until 4:30 PM of Thursday, then there is surprise on any day of the week at any time of the day before that time... .
Now, assuming that the system only hangs from 8 AM to 5 PM,
and that hanging takes 30 minutes, like the entire process, which starts at the
moment in which the prisoner is picked, and that the staff never works, like
those who deal with the hanging process, in any hypothesis, after 5 PM, then
the victim can be hanged at any day of the week until 4:30 PM, apart from
Friday, and it will always be considered a surprise (like perhaps apart from
holidays and other atypical times).
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