# Things 'proved' to be impossible . . . that turned out to be true **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 13, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971 "2014-04-13T00:15:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971/81 "2014-04-17T02:54:10Z")
Another economic condition that was supposed to have been impossible was simultaneous inflation and recession. Then it happened with the stagflation of the seventies. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971/82 "2014-04-17T05:34:09Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > I’d be interested in reading some of these dumbfounded reactions. Know of any resources? Sorry, not in particular off-hand. What I wrote is what I fathomed from a unit in my Econ 101 class, circa 1992. Basically, classic theory predicted that economies would stabilize at high levels of productivity, and that theory could not explain the persistence of the Great Depression. Only when Keynes developed his theory was that explained. Hence my interpretation that classical economists were “dumbfounded”. > [@Lumpy](#): > > But did the classic economic theories take into account deliberate government interference, such as the war economies of WW1, or the protectionist tariffs enacted in the early '30s? I don’t know about the WW1 stuff, but I think it’s true that “classical” economics called for laissez-faire from the government, and the protectionist tariffs of the 30’s were indeed often blamed, at least in part, for causing the Depression. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971/83 "2014-04-17T07:14:27Z")
How about the need for a medium called “ether” for the propogation of light waves? The inability to break the sound barrier, if not flight itself! Or, splitting the atom? Nuclear fission was CLEARLY thought to be impossible until the 1940s. In fact, nothing was thought to be smaller than atomic particles (protons, neutrons, and electrons) until we started atom smashing. And, what about space travel? I am sure each field of science has its technologies once thought impossible. Even everyday technologies now taken for granted werre once thought impossible, like shape-memory metals. The list goes on and on. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971/84 "2014-04-17T08:59:40Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > How about the need for a medium called “ether” for the propogation of light waves? The inability to break the sound barrier, if not flight itself! Or, splitting the atom? Nuclear fission was CLEARLY thought to be impossible until the 1940s. In fact, nothing was thought to be smaller than atomic particles (protons, neutrons, and electrons) until we started atom smashing. And, what about space travel? > > I am sure each field of science has its technologies once thought impossible. Even everyday technologies now taken for granted werre once thought impossible, like shape-memory metals. The list goes on and on. Something never having occurred to you as a possibility, which seems to be what you (and several other people in this thread) are talking about, and having proved (of thinking you have proved) something to be impossible, are two very different things. Indeed, if you haven’t thought of it, you can’t prove it to be impossible, or even try to. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971/85 "2014-04-17T11:22:08Z")
Yeah, but under that form of reasoning, disproving anything outside of mathematics is impossible. Hell, there are still people arguing about the moon landing and the Kennedy assassination. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971/86 "2014-04-17T11:48:03Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Yeah, but under that form of reasoning, disproving anything outside of mathematics is impossible. > > Hell, there are still people arguing about the moon landing and the Kennedy assassination. Is that directed at me, because it does not seem to bear any relation to what I said? But anyway, it is nonsense. Many things outside of mathematics are thought to have been proved (which, again, is a completely different thing from no alternative possibility having ever been thought of), _at least_ up to the legal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. That is most of science (and indeed, criminal legal cases) right there, for a start. The fact that you can almost always find a handful of people (like the Flat Earth Society) who are determined to keep on arguing about it is of little significance. The significant fact is that, the vast majority of the time, these less-than-mathematical proofs stand. The consensus continues to strongly endorse them. It is only very rarely that one gets overthrown, which is what makes it interesting when it does happen, of course (and even more rarely, a proof though to reach mathematical standards, is overthrown). ---
**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 17, 2014, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971/87 "2014-04-17T12:46:12Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Another economic condition that was supposed to have been impossible was simultaneous inflation and recession. Then it happened with the stagflation of the seventies. The 70s were unique because first the dollar was allowed to float, leading to its devaluation; and second because the rise of OPEC lead to a quadrupling of the price of crude oil, meaning that a fundamental commodity that the rest of the economy depended on was now simply more expensive to obtain than it had been. The resulting price rises arguably weren’t “inflation” in the classic sense of the term. ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971/88 "2014-04-17T13:34:22Z")
Well since about 1890 there has only been 30 years of oil left. Meaning the “experts” every year since about 1890 have made that prediction based on the current data they had at the time. Clearly they have been proved wrong. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971/89 "2014-04-17T17:21:24Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > Well since about 1890 there has only been 30 years of oil left. Not a biggie, as sustainable nuclear fusion is only 20 years away… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-proved-to-be-impossible-that-turned-out-to-be-true/685971.md?page=4)