PARADOXES IN

MATHEMETICS:

BY:
Vishal Kapoor,
Sumit Goyal.
C.S :‘B’
 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 .....................=?

Suppose we group the terms as (1-1) + (1-1) +

(1-1) +......................We then have
(1-1) + (1-1) + (1-1) + ... = 0 + 0 + 0 +... = 0.

But if we group them in another way, we obtain

1 + (-1+1) + (-1+1) + (-1+1) + ... = 1 + 0 + 0 + 0
+.................= 1.
PARADOXES IN MATHEMATICS
Mathematics transcends individual
civilizations and specific languages. It is
one large system of logic - a kind of
universal language. As such, certain
paradoxes and contradictions have
arisen that have troubled
mathematicians from ancient times to
the present.
 PARADOX:

An assertion that is essentially

self-contradictory.
Or,
An opinion that conflicts with
common belief.
 PARADOXES IN:
• ARITHMETICS
• SET THEORY
• MOTION
• PROBABILITY
• TOPOLOGIES

AND MANY MORE………………..

 Zeno’s Paradoxes
The paradoxes of the philosopher Zeno, born
approximately 490 BC in southern Italy, have
puzzled mathematicians, scientists
and philosophers for millennia.
Zeno fashioned 40 arguments
to show that change (motion)
and plurality are impossible.
 Zeno’s paradoxes :
• Of the 40 arguments attributed to Zeno by later
writers, the four most famous are on the subject
of motion:

Achilles
Dichotomy
Arrow
Stadium

 
 The most famous of Zeno's arguments is the
Achilles:

The slower will never

be overtaken by the
quicker .If it started
first.
Achilles gives the Tortoise a head start
of, say 10 m, since he runs at 10 ms-1
and the Tortoise moves at only 1 ms-1.
10 m.

Each time Achilles reaches the point

where the Tortoise was, the cunning
reptile will always have moved a little
way ahead.
10 + 1 + 0.1 + .... + 10(2-n) + ...
 DICHOTOMY:

There is no motion,
because that which is
moved must arrive at the
middle before it arrives
at the end, and so on
upto infinity.
.
 DICHOTOMY contd..

Runner has to reach an infinite number of 'midpoints'

in a finite time.In general, anyone who wants to move
from one point to another must meet these
requirements, and so motion is impossible, and what we
perceive as

Motion is merely an illusion.

This runner is clearly
disappointed that
he won't be going
anywhere
Ross- Littlewood paradox:

We have two seemingly

perfect good arguments with
completely opposite
conclusions.
At time t = 0, marbles 1 to 10 are placed in the jar and
marble 1 is taken out.
At t = 0.5, marbles 11 to 20 are in and marble 2 is out;
At t = 0.75, marbles 21 to 30 are put in and marble 3 is out;
Generally at time t = 1 − 0.5n, marbles 10n + 1 to 10n + 10
are put in and marble n + 1 is taken out.
How many marbles are in the jar at time t = 1?
 Ross- Littlewood paradox contd..
• One argument states that there should be
infinitely many marbles in the jar, because at
each step before t = 1 the number of marbles
increases from the previous step and does so
unboundedly.

So it should contain infinite marbles

• Second argument states: if the jar is
non-empty, then there must be a marble
in the jar. Say numbered n. But at time
t = 1 − 0.5n - 1, the nth marble has been
taken out, so marble n cannot be in the
jar. This is a contradiction, so the

Jar must be empty

Birthday Paradox:
• if you’re sitting in
a room with forty
people in it, what
are the chances
that two of those
people have the
same birthday?
(ignore leap
years)
 % of
# of those combinations
# of Possible combinations of where at least two combinations
where two
people birthdays birthdays fall on the same
day people have
same birthday
1 365 0 0.0%
2 133,225 365 0.2%
3 48,627,125 398,945 0.8%
4 17,748,900,625 290,299,465 1.6%

5 6,478,348,728,125 175,793,709,365 2.7%

6 2,364,597,285,765,625 95,677,479,012,025 4.0%

7 863,078,009,304,453,125 48,535,798,679,910,725 5.6%

8 315,023,473,396,125,390,625 23,417,361,992,539,211,42 7.4%

5
Your calculator will run out of
9 — —
figures
PARADOX RELATED TO SET THOERY:

• Suppose there is a town with just

one male barber; and that every man
in the town keeps himself clean-
shaven: some by shaving themselves,
some by attending the barber.
"Do you shave yourself?
If not, come in and I'll
shave you! I shave
anyone who does not
shave himself, and no
one else." –barber

But the question is that

who shaves barber?
 Asking this, we discover that the
situation presented is in fact
impossible:
• If the barber does not shave himself,
he must abide by the rule of the
town and shave himself.
• If he does shave himself, according to
the rule he should not shave himself.
 RUSSELL's PARADOX:
• Let Z be the set of all sets which do not
contain themselves as members, i.e.
Z= {X: XÏX }
Question is : Does Z belong to itself or not?
• If Z does not belong to Z then, by definition of
Z, Z does belong to itself.
• But, if Z does belong to Z then, by definition of
Z, Z does not belong to itself.
In either case we are led to a contradiction.
 The Seven Bridges Of Konigsberg
• In Konigsberg, Germany, a river
ran through the city such that in
its center was an island, and after
passing the island, the river broke
into two parts. Seven bridges
were built so that the people of
the city could get from one part to
another. Map given above:
.
The people wondered whether they could walk around
the city in a way that they cross each bridge exactly once.
Some failed attempts to solve the problem
 Euler's Solution: The Degree of a Vertex

• Euler approached this

problem by collapsing
areas of land
separated by the river
into points.

Theorem: If a network has more than two odd

vertices, it does not have an Euler path.
Try to trace the above figure
out without picking up your
pencil.

Every vertex with an odd

number of arcs attached to it
has to be either the beginning
or the end of your pencil-path.
So you can only have up to two
'odd' vertices!

Thus it is impossible to draw

the above picture in one pencil
stroke without retracing.
 Aristotle’s Wheel Paradox:

We have a wheel with a smaller wheel attached to it. The larger

wheel rolls on a flat surface from point A to point B. During this
movement, the smaller wheel touched the line CD all the way. As
we can see AB=CD . This would seem to imply that the
circumference of the smaller wheel is the same as that of the larger
wheel, which is impossible.
 Paradoxes in arithmetics
1 - 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 .....................=?

Suppose we group the terms as (1-1) + (1-1) + (1-1)

+......................We then have
(1-1) + (1-1) + (1-1) + ... = 0 + 0 + 0 +... = 0.

But if we group them in another way, we obtain

1 + (-1+1) + (-1+1) + (-1+1) + ... = 1 + 0 + 0 + 0
+.................= 1.
 Aristotle’s Wheel Paradox:

We have a wheel with a smaller wheel attached to it. The larger

wheel rolls on a flat surface from point A to point B. During this
movement, the smaller wheel touched the line CD all the way. As
we can see AB=CD . This would seem to imply that the
circumference of the smaller wheel is the same as that of the larger
wheel, which is impossible.
 Euler's Solution: The Degree of a Vertex

• Euler approached this

problem by collapsing
areas of land
separated by the river
into points.

Theorem: If a network has more than two odd

vertices, it does not have an Euler path.
 RUSSELL's PARADOX:
• Let Z be the set of all sets which do not
contain themselves as members, i.e.
Z= {X: XÏX }
Question is : Does Z belong to itself or not?
• If Z does not belong to Z then, by definition of
Z, Z does belong to itself.
• But, if Z does belong to Z then, by definition of
Z, Z does not belong to itself.
In either case we are led to a contradiction.
Birthday Paradox:
• if you’re sitting in
a room with forty
people in it, what
are the chances
that two of those
people have the
same birthday?
(ignore leap
years)
At time t = 0, marbles 1 to 10 are placed in the jar and
marble 1 is taken out.
At t = 0.5, marbles 11 to 20 are in and marble 2 is out;
At t = 0.75, marbles 21 to 30 are put in and marble 3 is out;
Generally at time t = 1 − 0.5n, marbles 10n + 1 to 10n + 10
are put in and marble n + 1 is taken out.
How many marbles are in the jar at time t = 1?
 DICHOTOMY contd..

Runner has to reach an infinite number of 'midpoints'

in a finite time.In general, anyone who wants to move
from one point to another must meet these
requirements, and so motion is impossible, and what we
perceive as

Motion is merely an illusion.

Achilles gives the Tortoise a head start
of, say 10 m, since he runs at 10 ms-1
and the Tortoise moves at only 1 ms-1.
10 m.

Each time Achilles reaches the point

where the Tortoise was, the cunning
reptile will always have moved a little
way ahead.
10 + 1 + 0.1 + .... + 10(2-n) + ...
QUESTIONS PLEASE………….