Good day Viz users.

So me and a co-worker were having a "debate" over whether something is impossible or if such an event is mathematically improbable (it was on whether the Chicago Cubs would win a World Series). So I wanted to post this question to the community to see what others would think.

If you say its mathematically improbable, you can argue that while events to occur are not impossible, the odds of such an occurrence is unlikely to occur. Anyone who plays Poker would most likely agree with this side because in Poker some events happen even thou the odds say that it won't. For example if you are looking for 1 card to complete an inside-strait (non-gamblers, what I mean is that your looking for ONLY 1 card to get 5 numerical numbers in a sequence i.e. 10-9-8-7-6) and your opponent has 3 pair. So in other words, your opponent will win unless you get 1 card to flop over. Is it impossible for that 1 card to flop over or is it mathematically improbable for the card to flop over given the certain factors (number of decks playing with, number of players, cards already flopped over).

Now on the other hand some events might seem impossible at occurring. For example, is it highly unlikely, but possible that the laws of physics can change at any given point? Is it highly unlikely, but possible that we will find out what happens when we die while we are still alive? Is it possible, but unlikely that we will have peace in the Middle East (if you want to argue that peace in the Middle East is impossible, but I would rather another thread be made about that topic.) These events 1 could argue are impossible given what we know.

So, is something impossible or is it just mathematically improbable?

You do know this thread would catch my attention, right? XD

Okay, so I'm not sure if you're asking about the specific examples provided, the discussion you are having with your co-worker, or ANYTHING at all.

I'd have to say that everything is simply mathematically improbable. Of course, many people would disagree with me because they don't view it as possible to say.... break the law of physics. However, due to my spirituality... my belief differs. If God wanted the world to suddenly operate on a different set of Laws, He would only need to say so.

The only thing I can think of as being -impossible- is for God to sin or lie. (Things of that nature.) For things not of a spiritual nature? Heck, I'm sure there's even a mathematical probability (however negligible) that my skin might suddenly turn yellow with purple polkadots.

Oldschool41 :

There is only ever one possible case. It is not possible that when I hit a baseball, the ball turns into a rabbit. Cause and effect is king.

Therefore,  it is impossible for the cubs to win the World Series this year or the ONLY possibility is that they will win. Anything else denies cause and effect.

Txgangsta :
The thing is, impossible is like disproven, until you have checked every single fact and possible occurrence, you cant be definitive.

I think the problem with being so precise with impossible, is a lot of words are open to interpretation. Like when you think about something being free. Its not free, in some way you paid, either in past money, as part of a deal, in being friendly to the person giving the item etc. If you go down that road, the word becomes pointless.
The thing about such words, is context should be enough to clarify what is meant in each case of the word being used.

Is the ball up?Only relative to you, but from another perspective its down, so it's not truly up.
What is young, what is old?
The English Language is not perfect. In french, if you want to ask for Jam, you actually specify one jam, otherwise you are asking for all the jam in the world. In English, you ask for the jam, that technically could mean all jam. Imperfect.

thenumberone :

Our knowledge is limited, so we don't know which option it is. However, we know it's one or the other.

thenumberone : It's all in the interpretation.  I agree.

Things like physics can possibly be imprecise if you start looking at the multiverse.  Gravity could stop being a function of reality in a spot somewhere in the world for a moment and no one might know about it.  It's mathematically highly improbable but that doesn't rule out impossible.

It is impossible to score 4 points with a touchdown in American football.  That will never happen within the constraints of the game.  You score six, end of story, that's it.

However, the rules may change at some point and make it a reality for touchdowns to be worth four instead of six points. 

The interpretation of what is and is not possible is up for debate.  FIipping cards?  That's just numbers. 

I agree with many here already in that it depends on the use of the word and what is being discussed. There are some things which we know to be entirely impossible according to the way our world works, but there are also some things which seem impossible to us because they are far-fetched or have never happened before, but that does not make them impossible, just highly mathematically improbable. Here I am going to cite Txgangsta, who earlier said "It is not possible that when I hit a baseball, the ball turns into a rabbit." We know this to be impossible because we have an understanding of how our world operates, and we know that instant transmutation without a cause is not a possibility.

Actually, we tend, as English speakers, to use the term "impossible" loosely in reference to things that aren't even necessarily improbable. If I said "That's impossible!" when I found out that I failed a test, that would be entirely incorrect in that there was and always will be a relatively high chance of me failing the test.

Anyway, I feel inclined to use the example about the monkeys and the typewriters here. I'm sure many of you have heard about the theory (I don't think it's a theory but I don't know what it really is) that says if an infinite number of monkeys had an infinite number of typewriters and had infinite time to smash the keys all they wanted, one would eventually produce a Shakespeare. This is something that many people would say is impossible, but really, it is only mathematically improbable, although extremely so.

This is how I look at it. Most of the things that we consider "impossible", are actually mathematically improbable. It is, however, possible for something to be impossible. For example, if you have the number 7 and you divide it by 5, it is impossible for you to (correctly) get 97 as an outcome. However I do agree that most things that we consider impossible are actually just improbable. For example, I always hear my grandpa singing "It's impossible, to stick an elephant up your nose, it's impossible." I know it is weird and I have no idea if it is from something, but that is besides the point. It is not, technically, impossible to stick an elephant up your nose. It is just highly improbable.

Knowledge, as we know it, is constantly changing. If I were to go back 150 years in the past and tell a man that in my time, I can send a message from my home in Oregon to a friend in Canberra, Australia in just a matter of seconds, he'd probably look at me funny and tell me I've gone mad. Now, this is something we do every day.

Even the laws of physics are changing as time passes. Of course, there are still things that will render in the field of impossibility, such as mythical beasts appearing from thin air, or people doing sudden outfit transformations and shooting around magic like a mahou shoujo. But as time passes, there are things that may have been impossible yesterday, but possible tomorrow. It's exciting, isn't it?