Talk:Banach-Tarski Paradox

Paradox
The Banach-Tarski paradox isn't a paradox in the sense of the Russell's Paradox - it's just called this colloqiually and in the literature, much like Europe is called a continent. It's a theorem. Zelmerszoetrop 06:56, 29 January 2009 (UTC)


 * So worth recategorising it and putting a redirect from / to Banach-Tarski Theorem? As that's what I've always understood it as (but then in this context I've only seen it written down - I have no colloquial interaction with any mathematicians anywhere). --Matt Westwood 07:57, 29 January 2009 (UTC)


 * It is a theorem insofar as it is a proved, absolutely true result, but it is called a paradox because the result is so remarkable and unexpected. Nobody who came to this sight looking for its proof would ever search for the Banach-Tarski Theorem.  The only expression used for this result is the Banach-Tarski paradox and I'm of the opinion we would do well to follow that convention if we want the site to be a usable reference.
 * I can think of other times this issue might come up in the course of this wiki - Braess's Paradox for one, but there are others. In general, I think we should stick to the name the theorem is most commonly known as, as we have down with Poincare Conjecture. Zelmerszoetrop 21:10, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Goodness, yep, that seems to be right ... googling only gives "paradox". We live and learn. --Matt Westwood 21:45, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

... can we include this joke?
 * Q: Give me an anagram of Banach-Tarski.
 * A: Banach-Tarski Banach-Tarski. --Matt Westwood 21:47, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

BTW, had cause to give our company CEO something to think about today. Having been told my team three times the workload this year than we had last year, but no increase in resources, I ironically mentioned, yes, that's entirely possible, after all, (and quoted the B-T paradox) ... --Matt Westwood 22:52, 4 February 2009 (UTC)