bjones
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That’s easy. The unstoppable force punches a hole in the immovable object and passes through it. As with many supposed paradoxes, this is another one that suffers from faulty syntax. It should never be assumed that only one of two possible events can occur or that there are only two possible solutions.
Luckily for us, we don’t really have to think about this conundrum because neither an immovable object nor an unstoppable force can exist in this universe. An immovable object would have to have an infinite mass, and anything with an infinite mass would collapse on itself and form a singularity, thus becoming a black hole.
An unstoppable force also cannot exist because it would require an infinite amount of energy, and modern science tells us that the energy in our universe is definitely finite and one day it will run out due to the force of entropy.
My answer is not the only solution provided to this classic puzzle. Another popular solution is that the unstoppable force would destroy the immovable object. Yet another answer has the immovable object and the unstoppable force destroying each other.
In order to make the puzzle a true paradox would require that additional parameters be established. However, the problem with this is that many people who ask the question believe there should be a scientific answer based on physics. This creates the bigger problem of how to impose the real-world laws of physics on impossible objects and forces. It just doesn’t make any sense to try.
Interestingly, the paradox you propose is considered to be part of a larger family of paradoxes known as omnipotence paradoxes. The chief paradox in this family is the question of whether an omnipotent being can create an object so heavy that it cannot be lifted by the omnipotent being. If the being could not create such an object, it would seem the being is not actually omnipotent. If the being could create an object it could not lift, again, the being is not actually omnipotent. This paradox is a little more solid than the immovable object paradox as no proposed solutions seem to exist.
Posted 4765 day ago
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