The raven paradox forces us to question the value of information. In his 1965 essay “Studies in the Logic of Confirmation,” the acclaimed philosopher of science Carl Hempel showcased a fundamental paradox in the scientific method using the simplistic observations of ravens. He started with the statement “all ravens are black.” Expressed in logic form,…
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The Birthday Paradox Explained
Q: How many randomly-chosen people would need to be in the same room to virtually guarantee two of them share the same birthday? A: 75 (99.9% probability) This unintuitive answer is known as the birthday paradox. The earliest known publication of the birthday paradox was in 1939 by the mathematician Richard von Mises. However, there…