Examples
Some further counterintuitive examples are:
- Gödel's incompleteness theorems -- for thousands of years, it was confidently assumed that arithmetic, and therefore similar systems of logic were completely solid in terms of being reliable for deductions. Gödel proved that such systems could not be both complete and consistent.
- Wave–particle duality / photoelectric effect - As demonstrated by the double slit experiment light and quantum particles behave as both waves and particles.
- Proof that 0.999... equals 1 - Some people find this difficult to accept.
- The violation of the monotonicity criterion in voting systems
- The Monty Hall problem poses a simple yes-or-no question from probability that even professionals can find difficult to reconcile with their intuition.
- Horseshoe orbits in orbital mechanics
- That light may pass through two perpendicularly oriented polar filters if a third filter, not oriented perpendicular to either of the other two, is placed between them.
- The Mpemba effect, in which, under certain circumstances, a warmer body of water will freeze faster than a cooler body in the same environment.
- That water vapor is lighter than air and is the reason clouds float and barometers work.
Read more about this topic: Counterintuitive
Famous quotes containing the word examples:
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—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)
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“No rules exist, and examples are simply life-savers answering the appeals of rules making vain attempts to exist.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)