Friday 29 March 2013

Building a Paradox

According to Wikipedia[1]:
“A paradox is an argument that produces an inconsistency, typically within logic or common sense.”
Every once in a while, it helps to do something that is totally unrelated to the field of Software Design. In my case I like to make the occasional wooden thing. In this case, I decided to build a wooden paradox.

Just to elaborate, I wished to make a wooden version of Curry's Paradox[2]. If you wish to know how the trick works, youtube[3] has some very good explanations.

This little project is one of the easiest I've made. (Quickest too)

Ingredients

  • some wood, 1 cm thickness, made of glued-together-layers of wood
  • different colour paints
  • varnish
  • magnets

Utensils:
  • a fretsaw (I used an iron saw, because I'm short a fretsaw)
  • glue
  • sandpaper
  • tapemeasure (essential)
  • pencil
  • paper (I used cm2 paper)
  • scissors
  • eraser
  • brushes

The Making Of


Cut the shapes out of paper.

Mark the shapes on the wood.

Saw the shapes using the fretsaw.
Use sandpaper on the pieces.

Paint them.

Varnish them.

After drying, apply glue to the magnets and glue them to the shapes.

Done.

It's not rocket science!

Notes

I managed to make something appropriate using an iron saw instead of a fretsaw, and I do not recommend it. It's a pain to create 90 degrees corners.

Next time need to sandpaper more, as the edges were quite rough.

References

[1] Paradox - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox
[2] Missing square puzzle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_square_puzzle
[3] Curry's Paradox and the Notion of Area: Part I (Tanton)
http://youtu.be/eFw0878Ig-A

Curry's Paradox


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