(January 18, 2022 at 8:28 pm)Belacqua Wrote:(January 18, 2022 at 7:49 pm)LadyForCamus Wrote: Like, I can imagine a rainbow-farting unicorn. How does it follow that because I can conceive of it, a unicorn that farts rainbows is logically possible? I don’t get it.
If I'm understanding right (always a big "if") something can be logically possible and still not at all something we ought to believe in.
Like, there's no LOGICAL contradiction in the idea of a one-horned horse-like creature whose anal glands spray a mist which, in the proper light, make rainbows.
So that's logically possible, but no sane person expects to get one for Christmas.
Something that's logically impossible is like a square triangle, or a married bachelor, or a thing that exists and doesn't exist simultaneously. Self-contradictory.
I thought that rainbow farting meant that some hole opens from the body of the animal and a rainbow comes out of the hole. Perhaps it is a CD that comes out of the hole and the CD surface acts as a diffraction grating.
You are talking about a mist but mist forming is difficult. I think the droplet size would have to be less than 0.1 mm in diameter.
Skunks spray large drops and so, the drops quickly fall to the ground. We don’t ever see a rainbow with these.
There is sea creature that somehow creates a sudden shockwave. I think it sort of like a crab. The force of the shockwave is like a bullet existing the barrel of a gun. Anyway, no mist here.
There is a type of beetle that mixes H2O2 and another chemical and it creates a large explosion of hot steam. Maybe this one creates a mist.
Quote:Something that's logically impossible is like a square triangle, or a married bachelor, or a thing that exists and doesn't exist simultaneously. Self-contradictory.
Those examples are fine but they are about word definitions and words are not real. Nature operates without words.
Better examples that tie into our universe would be
“It is logically impossible to find a star or a planet that has a cubic shape.”
“It is logically impossible to find a soap bubble that is cubic in shape, unless there are nearby bubbles creating a restriction.”
“It is impossible to find a Home-Depot hammer made by nature.”
“It is impossible to find a screw made by nature.”
“It is impossible to find a gear with 50 teeth made by nature.”