# Figure this out if you can.. Noone else can **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 15, 2000, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491 "2000-04-15T23:28:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2000, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/1 "2000-04-15T23:28:00Z")
You’re handed a paper napkin with side ‘A’ written with the following: “The statement on the other side is TRUE!” You turn over the napkin only to read the other side, ‘B’, assert: “The statement on the other side is FALSE!” The question is: Which is true or false? Is side ‘A’ true and ‘B’ false? Or vice versa? or, are both true or both false? Hmmm. ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Berry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@Carl\_Berry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Berry)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2000, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/2 "2000-04-15T23:56:00Z")
Yes! ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/3 "2000-04-16T00:28:00Z")
This post is false. * * * …ebius sig. This is a moebius sig. This is a mo… (sig line courtesy of WallyM7) ---
**Author:** ![AuMatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@AuMatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuMatar)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/4 "2000-04-16T00:34:00Z")
The answer is both are neither true nor false. The easiest way to show this is whit boolean logic. A=The statement on the other side is TRUE so A=B B=The statement on the other side is FALSE so B=A’ ’ means not so we get A=A’ This is a mathematical impossibility. This means one of our assumptions is wrong. Meaning one side is wrong and the other is right (or possibly both are wrong, however that leaves us with the same mathematical impossibility). Which is which is undeterminable without more information. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/5 "2000-04-16T01:10:00Z")
Aumatar- Are you saying that neither side is true? or neither is false? ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/6 "2000-04-16T01:12:00Z")
42 ---
**Author:** ![AuMatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@AuMatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuMatar)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/7 "2000-04-16T01:24:00Z")
Im not saying either. Im saying its an impossibility. This is the 3rd possibility in logic- a problem that ends up T-\>F. Basically it means that the situation can never come up. The problem has no solution because some of our base assumptions are incorrect (either base assumption A or B). ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/8 "2000-04-16T01:28:00Z")
So what do you say to the guy that handed your the note? Then again, maybe that argument could work with my girlfriend; “That question cannot be answered so I chose not to try” Thanks, ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/9 "2000-04-16T01:42:00Z")
Hey - isn’t this from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s _This Side of Paradox_? ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/10 "2000-04-16T01:49:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Hey - isn’t this from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradox? I think you are correct. However, I believe it also occurs in Milton’s “Paradox Lost” or “Paradox Regained” (sorry, I can’t remember which) both of which predate it by a considerable amount. * * * …ebius sig. This is a moebius sig. This is a mo… (sig line courtesy of WallyM7) ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/11 "2000-04-16T02:21:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Cabbage: > \*\* I believe it also occurs in Milton’s “Paradox Lost” or “Paradox Regained” (sorry, I can’t remember which) > > \*\* It’s not easy to keep the two straight. All I know is that Milton got married and wrote **Paradise Lost**. Then his wife died and he wrote **Paradise Regained**. * * * Work is the curse of the drinking classes. (Oscar Wilde) ---
**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/12 "2000-04-16T02:43:00Z")
It’s just like trying to solve the statement: I always lie. The only possibility I can find in that is that someone lies some of the time, and they are lying to you right now. something to think about… ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/13 "2000-04-16T03:20:00Z")
## This is why on Star Trek, Kirk could always crash the evil A.I.s he kept running into. Whereas a human intelligence just says “Bullshit!” You say I’m blind, I say you’re hallucinating. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/14 "2000-04-16T04:52:00Z")
Both statements are exactly half true. Kinda makes ya feel all warm and **fuzzy** inside, doesn’t it? * * * “There are only two things that are infinite: The Universe, and human stupidity-- and I’m not sure about the Universe” –A. Einstein ---
**Author:** ![qbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/2acd7d/32.png) [@qbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qbert)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/15 "2000-04-16T05:24:00Z")
neither is true nor false. since both the statements are posted on the same entity (being the napkin), it’s a contradictory existence. a contradictory existence that could only be resolved with a game of TWISTER. * * * luke… i am your sperm donor. ---
**Author:** ![qbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/2acd7d/32.png) [@qbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qbert)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/16 "2000-04-16T05:26:00Z")
you can’t actually judge either side, it’s a matter of opinion. had both the opinions been humans there would be a fight or something, who knows… ---
**Author:** ![chief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@chief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chief)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/17 "2000-04-16T05:52:00Z")
i dont know, a million? hehe, actually i think they are both wrong * * * Check out my site: [Chief’s Domain](http://qfg.tierranet.com) ---
**Author:** ![Zor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/848f3c/32.png) [@Zor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zor)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/18 "2000-04-16T06:25:00Z")
Since most paper napkins are folded, I’d just unfold the damn thing and throw it back in the face of the person who gave it to me… “What, you can’t read?” ---
**Author:** ![billehunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c37758/32.png) [@billehunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billehunt)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/19 "2000-04-16T06:44:00Z")
Check out “Gödel, Escher, Bach” by Hofstadter. A classic book about lots of stuff, including Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem, which is intimately tied to the OP. Also, check out “Infinity and the Mind” by Rucker. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491/20 "2000-04-16T08:47:00Z")
This is like the half-dead cat in the box. Each statement is half-accurate until you look at the opposite side, in which case the statement that you were previously looking at becomes half-innaccurate and the one you are currently looking at becomes half-accurate. Neither will ever be completely accurate or innaccurate, for the second that the statement being viewed is switched, the accuracy of the other shifts to the other side of the accuracy spectrum. Like the glass being half-empty or half-full, or the aforementioned cat being half-dead or… well, the cat’s always half-dead, but we’re not talking about half-lives, we’re talking about annoyingly paradoxical napkins. Ultimately, it depends on your point of view. My favorite point of view is that both sides are complete bunk because the statement on either side is neither “TRUE” nor “FALSE” (not in terms of correctness… neither side reads “TRUE” or “FALSE”, they read “The statement on the other side is etc. etc.”) So just open a can of anality on anyone who presents this problem to you in the future… I, on the other hand, having never heard of this situation before, will immediately go about causing headaches for my friends. * * * -SPOOFE [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/figure-this-out-if-you-can-noone-else-can/10491.md?page=2)