• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Let's Use Science To Answer Philosophy

Kahalachan

Illuminator
Kahalachan
Joined
May 21, 2007
Messages
4,237
This will be fun. We can use scientific understanding to answer some philosophical questions.

Obviously things like "What is the meaning of life?" would be a bit subjective and more on the side of philosophy.

But we can answer "What came first? The chicken or the egg?"

Reptiles laid eggs, and birds evolved from reptiles. So eggs in general came first. The very first egg, containing an embryo with the DNA signature of a what is currently taxonomically classified as a chicken, also came first.

So post some of those philosophical brain teasers and try and answer them scientifically :)
 
Kahalachan said:
Reptiles laid eggs, and birds evolved from reptiles. So eggs in general came first. The very first egg, containing an embryo with the DNA signature of a what is currently taxonomically classified as a chicken, also came first.
Click to expand...


I worked that out when I was about 12. I'm so proud. :D
 
Kahalachan said:
But we can answer "What came first? The chicken or the egg?" Reptiles laid eggs, and birds evolved from reptiles. So eggs in general came first. The very first egg, containing an embryo with the DNA signature of a what is currently taxonomically classified as a chicken, also came first.
Click to expand...

This is a semantic game. Obviously the question means "a chicken egg" or the answer is obvious, as you point out: the egg. There were eggs long before there were chickens.

So, define "a chicken egg".

If it's an egg that hatched a chicken, the egg came first, obviously.

If it's an egg laid by a chicken, the chicken came first, obviously.

What I want to know is how come you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway?
 
tsg said:
What I want to know is how come you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway?
Click to expand...

The terms were derived independently and are not related. A driveway probably means the way that connects to the drive or street or the area which is driven onto...

I'm not sure on that one.

But as for parkway, that's easy. A parkway is a road which is either partially or entirely surrounded by a park. It may go through a park or be built on a strip of land which is also a park and which is designed to be astetically pleasing. The Merit Park Way, which I know well, has very astetically pleasing bridges and is surrounded by grass and woods.

Generally, parkways are not designed to be very fast (not like expressways). They're usually 55mph and sometimes 45mhp and trucks are not generally allowed.

This actually goes way back to the 1920's and earlier when it was intended for a nice sunday drive out enjoying the country and getting where you were going in your motorcar. Of course, this expanded greatly in the 30's with the Works Progress stuff and the massive amount of public works construction.

Generally, parkways are distinct from the interstate system, but some do double as interstate highways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkway

So by "park" they are not refering to parking a car, but to driving in a park.
 
tsg said:
So, define "a chicken egg".

If it's an egg that hatched a chicken, the egg came first, obviously.
Click to expand...

Then you also have to define a chicken. When some entity hatches from an egg, how similar to a modern chicken must it be for it to count in your rule above?

And then you can muddy the waters by changing the focus of the question. Does it talk about the existence of the chicken before it was brought forth on earth? ie: a kind of pre-life rather than after-life.


More important is: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Well, according to theory, the geodesic of a spherical surface is a great circle. So the chicken may well have determined that the shortest route to its destinatioin was across the road. Modern GPS and satellite imaging confirms that the road WAS too long to walk around.

All that remains is to determine if the chicken was indeed too lazy to take a less direct route.
 
FireGarden said:
...


More important is: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Well, according to theory, the geodesic of a spherical surface is a great circle. So the chicken may well have determined that the shortest route to its destinatioin was across the road. Modern GPS and satellite imaging confirms that the road WAS too long to walk around.

All that remains is to determine if the chicken was indeed too lazy to take a less direct route.
Click to expand...

Well, it depends on who you ask:

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Isn't it obvious? Can't you people see the plain truth in front of your face? The chicken was
going to the "other side." That's what "they" call it: the "other side."
Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And, if you eat that chicken, you
will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this
abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless
phrases like "the other side." That chicken should not be free to cross the
road. It's as plain and simple as that.

KEN STARR: I intend to prove that the chicken crossed the road at the
behest of the president of the United States of America in an effort to
distract law enforcement officials and the American public from the
criminal wrongdoing our highest elected official has been trying to cover up.
As a result, the chicken is just another pawn in the president's ongoing
and elaborate scheme to obstruct justice and undermine the rule of law. For
that reason, my staff intends to offer the chicken unconditional immunity
provided he co-operates fully with our investigation. Furthermore, the
chicken will not be permitted to reach the other side of the road until our
investigation and any Congressional follow-up investigations have been
completed.
(We also are investigating whether Sid Blumenthal has leaked information to
the Rev. Jerry Falwell, alleging the chicken to be homosexual in an effort
to discredit any useful testimony the bird may have to offer, or at least
to ruffle his feathers.)

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal a job from a decent, hardworking American.

DR. SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad?
Yes! The chicken crossed the road, But why it crossed, I've not been told!

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die. In the rain.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

GRANDPA: In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road.
Someone told us that the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

KARL MARX: It was a historical inevitability.

SADDAM HUSSEIN: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and
we were quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

RONALD REAGAN: What chicken?

CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.

FOX MULDER: You saw it cross the road with your own eyes.
How many more chickens have to cross before you people believe it?

SIGMUND FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken 98, which will not only cross
roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your
checkbook - and Internet Explorer is an inextricable part of eChicken.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What do you mean by chicken? Could you define chicken please?

LOUIS FARRAKHAN: The road, you will see, represents the black man. The
chicken crossed the "black man" in order to trample him and keep him down.

THE BIBLE: And God came down from the heavens, and He said unto the chicken,"Thou shalt cross the road." And the chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

COLONEL SANDERS: I missed one?
 
phildonnia said:
So, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
Click to expand...

None. The head of the pin is already occupied by all the leprechauns dancing on it. And leprechauns and angles don't get along because the angles keep telling the leprechauns that they have to try to get their drinking under control or to admit they have a problem...
 
Last edited:
DRBUZZ0 said:
...The Merit Park Way, which I know well, has very astetically pleasing bridges and is surrounded by grass and woods...
Click to expand...
Yes, I know the Merritt Parkway well. Back in college, we used to take it to NYC from Hartford. That was before 91 was built.
 
phildonnia said:
So, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
Click to expand...

Assume a spherical angel.

The Planck length is approximately 1.6*10^(-35) m (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_length). This is the smallest length that makes physical sense. Since angels do not make physical sense, this is an upper bound for the diameter of an angel.

Therefore, an angel occupies 2*10^(-70) m^2 in cross section

The average pin head has a diameter of 1.5 mm (http://waynesword.palomar.edu/pinhead.htm)

The area of a pinhead is then 1.7*10^(-6) m^2

If we assume that the angels dance by gyrating around their own axes, they each occupy their own cross sectional area, and we should be able to fit 8.8*10^63 angels on a head of a pin.

However, we must take into account the packing fraction, since there will be empty spaces between angels. The best packing fraction is for a hexagonal arrangement. Since angels are divine, and therefore perfect, they must use the best possible arrangement. Assume that they pack in a hexagonal manner. Then a simple calculation shows that the packing fraction is 0.906.

Therefore we can fit at least 8*10^63 angels on the head of a pin.
 
FireGarden said:
Then you also have to define a chicken. When some entity hatches from an egg, how similar to a modern chicken must it be for it to count in your rule above?
Click to expand...

However you define "chicken", the egg must come first if a chicken egg is defined as an egg that hatched a chicken.
 
Buzz said:
But as for parkway, that's easy. A parkway is a road which is either partially or entirely surrounded by a park.
Click to expand...
And a roadway is a road that is partially or entirely surrounded by a road.

~~ Paul
 
Walter Wayne said:
What kind of animal lays a chicken egg though?
Click to expand...

In the context of the problem, the closest thing you can get to a chicken without actually being one, at least for the first one.

Unless, of course, a chicken egg is defined as an egg laid by a chicken, in which case the chicken came first.
 
Walter Wayne said:
What kind of animal lays a chicken egg though?
Click to expand...

ARTHUR: A duck.
CROWD: Oooh.
BEDEMIR: Exactly! So, logically...,
VILLAGER #1: If... she.. weighs the same as a duck, she's made of wood.
BEDEMIR: And therefore--?
VILLAGER #1: A witch!
CROWD: A witch!
BEDEMIR: We shall use my larger scales!
[yelling]
BEDEMIR: Right, remove the supports!
[whop]
[creak]
CROWD: A witch! A witch!
WITCH: It's a fair cop.
CROWD: Burn her! Burn! [yelling]
BEDEMIR: Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?
 
Civilized Worm said:
I worked that out when I was about 12. I'm so proud. :D
Click to expand...

Very good. I only figured it out more recently. It's implicit in the theory of evolution.
Although, really the changes are so gradual that it might be hard to say which animal was the first chicken. But eggs were clearly around long before chickens.
 
phildonnia said:
So, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
Click to expand...

Zero. They're just too large, and I doubt they are very good at dancing:
PH2006052700151.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom