What do you believe?

[taks]

So if I have a box, and I put a spoon in it, and I say "There is one spoon in this box", I'm wrong? I'm confused.

no. for small counts, accuracy is easy. errors are discussed in parts per billion, or even worse. count that same spoon a billion, or maybe a trillion, times. then you have to devise a method to do that in some reasonable amount of time (i.e., your lifetime). the counting mechanism then suffers from various randomly distributed errors, and some of the time, you'll recount the same spoon, or not count it at all.

 

if you're doing a measurement, your counting accuracy is +/- 1/2 the smallest division at best. once that division gets to the molecular/atomic level, it becomes a counting problem (take it to the quark level and it becomes worse). since the number of molecules or atoms is huge, some method must be devised to count the individual pieces. errors then creep in unavoidably.

 

taks

[Nick_i_am]

The glass is half full of poop.

[taks]

if you're doing a measurement, your counting accuracy is +/- 1/2 the smallest division at best.

oops... that should be "... your measurement accuracy...".

 

taks

[Hiro Protagonist]

This poll is about what you believe where these questions are concerned, not what I believe about them. So don't ask me to explain them, instead choose, then post why or don't...

 

The glass is half full

The glass is half empty

The glass is all ways full

There is no glass

 

Before I could answer any of these questions, I would have to know where the water came from, is it drinkable and are there adequate lavatory facilities available to relieve myself after drinking it.

[Walsingham]

The spoon question has nothing to do with small numbers. It's because you've restricted your measurement to integers. If you had a less abstract definition of how large/heavy/tasty a spoon had to be to qualify as a whole spoon, then error would come back in. But you've said that your spoon is near enough to one spoon to be a spoon.

 

Note that you are basically looking on the spoon as a valid spoon, not because of how big it is, but because it performs a certain job using certain characteristics. This is no bad thing, and why engineers are cooler than scientists.

[Gorth]

There is no spoon.

[Musopticon?]

In the glass?

[metadigital]

I selected all of them, because they are all correct, depending on the context.

[Musopticon?]

Adding one vote to each of them isn't really "selecting them all", it's denying the fact that the glass is half full.

[Fenghuang]

Did Jodo change his name?

[Musopticon?]

Yeah, it's "Cantousent" nowadays.

[thepixiesrock]

Zing!

[Cantousent]

Jerk. If I shove you in the glass, will it be half full or half empty? ...And it turns out we're optimists because the glass is half empty is losing by a landslide.

[Musopticon?]

If you shover me in a glass, it won't half as awesome as Lou

[metadigital]

Adding one vote to each of them isn't really "selecting them all", it's denying the fact that the glass is half full.

I selected that one too.

[Nick_i_am]

It's balanced by the fact that I selected none of them. The glass is up my nose.

 

Help.

[Gorth]

Has anybody been able to figure out what exactly it is half full of?

 

I mean, if it is half full and the the stuff it is half full of is "nothing", where does that leave it?

[metadigital]

I know, it's a trick question: half empty!

[Walsingham]

In the theatre of awesomeness that is my mind I cut the glass down to size with a samurai sword. While wearing spandex. It is then full. And highly disturbed.

[Dark_Raven]

Half full of liquid, half full of air.