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3 readings

Paradoxes, Unpacked

Named paradoxes with something to calculate: the assumptions inside the question and the competing answers side by side, with no claim that the argument is over; no logic puzzles or ethical dilemmas.

Color lithograph of a tabby cat lying on a red cushion and looking at the viewer, by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, 1909

Paradoxes, Unpacked

Schrödinger’s Cat: The Odds Are Easy. What They Mean Is Not

Schrödinger's cat, as quoted from 1935: even odds in an hour give the first decay an effective half-life, not always an atom's. What the state means stays open.

Image credit

"Winter: Cat on a Cushion" by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winter-_Cat_on_a_Cushion_MET_DP242969.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/); modified: cropped to 16:9, keeping the whole head and ears; the lower sheet, the printed signature and the printer's line removed

Etching of Albert Einstein at a blackboard with chalk diagrams, by Ferdinand Schmutzer, 1921

Paradoxes, Unpacked

Twin Paradox: Einstein’s 1905 Version Had Clocks, Not Twins

Image credit

"Albert Einstein, etching by Ferdinand Schmutzer, 1921" by Ferdinand Schmutzer — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albert_Einstein,_Etching_by_Ferdinand_Schmutzer_1921.jpg — Public domain in the US (published 1921) and in the EU (author died 1928, life+70); faithful reproduction of a two-dimensional work; modified: cropped to 16:9, keeping the whole head, the chalk drawings on the blackboard and the hand; the margin, the signature, the edition mark and the lower part of the figure removed, downsized to 1800 px wide, card view shows this 16:9 crop