when you butter a piece of bread and drop it, it will almost always land buttered side down. and a cat always lands on its feat, so what if you butter a cat back and drop it what is the sound of one handed clapping if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound? these questions are normally used as ways to induce thought in someone else. but why something so completely rediculous and with an obvious answer or just a stupid answer thats not even out of the ordinary now obviously there are alot more examples but i just want to know is there actually some deeper meaning to these questions or are they as idiotic as i think:shrug:
They are not meant to be answered, they are meant to be considered. Sometimes the question is more important than the answer.
You end up bleeding from several dozen claw and bite marks as the cat takes revenge. Actually as one hand can clap against your thigh it is not that much different from two hands. Ok a real answer. The tree does make a vibration but not a sound. Sound is when our ear starts the process of tranlating vibrations into a form the brain can handle. So without anything to hear it there is no sound, but there is vibration. Sorry but I had to, I also tend to answer "Why is the sky blue?" "Why are hotdogs some in packages of ten and hotdog buns in packages of eight?" "Why is a fried ground beef patty called a hamburger?" and the ever popular "Why me?"
so then whats the point in a question if there is no search for an answer i could understand the meaning behind asking a question that has no answer. theres still motive to look for one a question without persuit of an answer in the nature of the inquiry is not a question at all but merely a useless waste of time
Just because you don't understand it, that means it is a useless waste of time? You're not really that arrogant, are you?
Actually it is just and exercise to get you to think in different directions. Which is never a waste of time.
the hotdogs: each is packaged for conveniece of the manufacturer and for a packaging design that is pleasing to the eye not so much on the bun side but if you look at a hotdog package that has 8 in it. it kinda looks wierd and less appealing the sky isnt blue its just the wavelength of the reflected light from the gases in the ozone layer just so happens to be read as what we are told is called blue or you could just say that it is what society has dictated to be true the section of meat from the cow originally used for it is called the ham (yet for reasons i dont want to know they call the lower front leg the butt) burger probably came from the name of a place or a person who else
I don't know about the buttered cat question, but the other two are famous Buddhist Kōans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koan
Actually it has to do with the desired net weight of the package. standard hotdogs are ten to a pound and hotdog buns are usually 1.5 to 2 oz a piece making the package 12 to 16 oz. That's the whole answer right there. Correct. though the light is refracted not reflected Wrong. The word hamburger comes from Hamburg steak, which originated in the German city of Hamburg. Contrary to what folk etymology might lead one to believe, there is no actual 'ham' in a hamburger. Also Why not? Or Do you think your the only one that has problems?
lets try a different direction if you lose something, then later on you find it. you dont keep searching for what youve already found. unless your my brother who would lose it in the process of picking it up somehow. if a question is answered why look for an answer. but what really troubles me is that most of these have an answer before there was a need for one, before the question was asked an over exagerated example: am i human
As a matter of fact it would make more sense to strap a piece of toast to a cat's back, butter-side up. And the answer is, the cat-toast would hover over the ground in indecision. duh.
They are just meant to make you think. I can actually clap with one hand though, and both hands alone at the same time too.
As you said in the tread start: "these questions are normally used as ways to induce thought in someone else." This is meant to show you that there are questions that we cannot answer, but we can use our minds to try to answer it. Most people do not have the brainpower to process the answer with anything usefull other that: One hand clapping against your thigh makes a sound.... People who does have the brainpower might think something like: I know that if I use both hands when claping there is a sound, why is that? then comes alot of analysing detail about how the human hand work, how the nevers are translating the signale from the brain, how the brain works, how we interpet sound. As the two hands meet there is sound, sound is a wave, Our ear can hear waves that moves at diffirent speeds from low to high. When our hands move towards each other they are pushing air infront of them. This air is moving at the speed of the hand behind it. The sound you hear when the two hands collide is air being pushed out from between the hands at a speed you can hear. If you could hear the airwaves you hand makes as it moves, you would be able to describe the sound of one hand claping. This is to introduce thoungh to others. But if you are looking for questions that can be answered easiely then let me ask you something seemingly simple that has introduced many many thoughts: What is the difference between man and woman?
