Saturday 12 October 2013

The Unexpected Hanging Problem



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).




____________________________________________________________



____________________________________________________________

    


2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is all psychological: Hitler got an entire Country to believe his assertions and go killing and committing atrocities against a certain class of people. As far as I know, despite having seen a variety of descriptions (not always agreeing) of the claims of Hitler, he wanted an Arian race, which meant white people with blue or green eyes. Well, were I in his crew, I would have shot him (Hitler, as far as I know, had dark eyes, what already places him outside of the Arian race, like for all I know). His way of putting these ideas to others is what has made the difference, trivially. The violence we receive from an assertion, a text or a speech will determine how much convinced we are of the point of the person writing or saying that piece, I reckon. Also our fragility to that kind of approach, like our level of fragility.

    ReplyDelete