Here are a few random little mysteries that I found interesting and wanted to share with you. Enjoy!
Infinite Coastline
If someone gave you a picture of a coastline, and asked you to estimate it's length, how would you measure it? Would you draw a mental straight line from on end of the picture to the other? Would you trace the vague curves of the land?
See, the length of the coastline really depends on your own interpretation of it. If you did draw a straight line, the distance would be a lot shorter than even tracing the vague curves. And although its obvious the straight line isn't the exact measurement, what IS? Technically, you could keep finding smaller nooks and crannies, individual grains of sand or soil, even down to atoms, and the coastline will keep getting longer and longer and longer. So, virtually, it is infinite.
The Heap of Sand Mystery
Say you considered 1,000,000 grains of sand to be a heap of sand. Sounds about right, doesn't it? Well, say you took one grain of sand off of that pile. It would still be heap, right? It wouldn't make that much of a difference. But, if you kept saying that, and removing more and more grains of sand, eventually you'd be left with just one grain.
Is that still a heap?
Liar Paradox
The sentence "everything I say is a lie" sounds, at first, like any normal, logical statement. Right? If you look at it closer, though, it makes no sense at all. Think about it: if that statement is true, and everything I say is a lie, then that statement must also be a lie, meaning NOT everything I say is a lie... Do you get how it is not logical at all?
