Next time I get asked if I want "soup or salad" I might have an existential crisis...
But how much percentage of water is needed for soup? In fact, I think some soup would have a lower percentage of water than salad. Hmmm. Also, would salad even become soup or would it be a beverage, like a juice?
@wrenthereaper just answer the question. no hard time. 1st world problems.
"You must hug your potatoes so that they know that you care." -- Kevin, 2018
I always hug my potatoes so that they know I care
TierZoo I heard this will also give you a boost in the happiness stat.
What tier are potatoes? I mean, they can clone, which did lead to the great Irish Potato Famine of [insert year] (yes, this is a real thing that lead to the starvation of thousands of Irish), but they can withstand the cold pretty well.
Heck, why not make a tier list for all root vegetals, or all of the well known vegetales?
Newborns are 15% away from being soup.
Supscribe 4 if you are creative enough that can be 100% easy
Easier way to explain this. 100lbs and 1% is solid matter. So that's 1lb solid matter. They dry out and now it's 2% solid matter. But still only 1lb. And if 1lb is 2% of the total weight, then the total weight must be 50lb. You don't even have to do the water % math this way to get the same result.
You see I was looking for a Siple answer and this explains it properly. I totally understand this concept bet the dude in the video doesn't know how to describe what he is say. If you can't described something in a simple manner you do not understand it well. Thanks for the comment helped a lot.
Its because 2% is a wrong assumption. Guess thats why he circled wrong repeatedly. In which case whats the point of this video, to prevent ppl from making mistakes? People will click-off the video. Then next video he makes is a video on paradox also, because, what, you think the audience didn't get the paradox? Maybe its on you kevin maybe its on you.
I am glad the dude is trying to help people understand math in a way, but this is not how you explain the analytics of solving this problem. Might as well watch TedEd instead of these videos. The value of this 10 minute long video is equal or if not then less than the value of your comment.
Exactly. I got 50lbs, and people who’ve taken an Algebra course should get this as well. Not remotely close to a paradox.
The Vsauce paradox: Whenever Vsauce says Right?, It is always wrong.
It always is... wrong! It’s always wrong unless it isn’t... sometimes, it’s rare but it’s right!
“What’s more water than watermelon?”
Me: water.
“LETTUCE”
Me: oh. Right
Caliesto pelletier umm u stole my comment
Dk if it was intentional but still...
Jesus can walk on water,
I can walk on Lettuce,
Lettuce is 95% water,
I am 95% Jesus
Roses are red
Violets are blue
You are affirming the consequent
And I will do that too
Apples are 100% red
But apples aren't roses
This fallacy makes me blue
Jesus turned water into wine
You can turn water into water
wine is 85% water
You are 85% Jesus
Buddha ate bread
You eat bread
bread is 100% bread
You are 100% Buddha
Mohammed Ali breathed air
air is 100% electrons, protons and neutrons
You can post fallacious arguments in UA-cam comments using your keyboard
Your keyboard is 100% atoms, neutrons and electrons
You are Mohammed Ali
This is not a sentence
The sentence I wrote above is false
This is not a paradox
I like potatoes
You like potatoes
You are not a sentence
You are false
You are a potato
The potato paradox is how my 10-year old PC can still play modern games...
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I get it it's because your computer is a potatoe from Ireland
*but 1+1 is 2 RIGHT? ‘WrOoOnG’*
@@deniscelianov7932
Let a = b
That mean a^2=a*b
That mean that a^2-b^2=a*b-b^2
That mean we get
(a-b)*(a+b)=b*(a-b)
Remove a-b we get:
a+b = b
But because a = b
That mean 2b = b
=> 2=1
That mean 1+1=3 is right
*Goes to restaurant*
Waiter "What would you like to drink"
Me "Lettuce"
“You must hug your potatoes so that they know that you care”- Kevin, from Vsauce2
You made Mr. Potato Head stand in the corpses of his friends. He had the thousand yard stare going on.
Kevin: We are humans right?
Me: Rig-
Kevin: *WRONG*
@@-wingsofwasp- hellof fellow human Ha Ha HA funny joke
It is such a meme HA HA
•_•_ _ _ _•••_ _ _ _
Kevin : "You must hug your potatoes to show that you care" [3:26]
_As a person who has gone to Ireland for vacation twice, I can confirm this is why the potatoes there are so high quality_
Well think about this...
Cheese has holes
More cheese=more holes
More holes=less cheese
More cheese=less cheese
🤯 🧀
A larger block of cheese still has a greater mass than the smaller block so therefore you don’t get less cheese. The mass is based off actual solid cheese and not the holes.
The important point (like in the video) is the % of solid, not the total weight.
So more cheese in mass does not change the percentage of solid in the cheese. You still have the same amount of cheese, if you take the % of the volume.
So it is a paradox if you choose to use the % instead of the real weight.
The sound of your marker scraping against your paper hurts my teeth. I can't explain why, but it does.
"What's more water than watermelon?"
Uh... Water?
"Lettuce"
Oh
Not a paradox at all. Similar to most of these paradox videos. Like 1% of these videos are actual paradox videos. The rest are just 5% away from being soup.
A soup that you could reconfigure into the Sun if you bring Banach-Tarski into play.
It really isn't . When a potato drys up it loses 1% of its water the potato consequently loses some of its weight. Why would you take away the 1% of water and add 1% of the potato solids? the water doesn't become a solid it just goes away and the rest of the 99% of the potato would become the new 100% as the 1% of the water that has dried up is no longer part of the potato.
exactly. entertaining video but the premise is completely wrong. you lose 1% of 99# of water so you are left with 1# of mass still, and 1% less water. or 98.1# total. I have no idea were he came up with the rest of his nonsense.
But it _is_ based on a misunderstanding.
If it was presented as "you have 1 red ball and 99 yellow balls, how many yellow balls would you have to remove for the red ball to be 2 percent of the balls?" most people would not have a problem with this.
yeah this guy seems to enjoy developing videos in a manner that is difficult to comprehend. Your analogy made it much easier to grasp.
That is STILL not the point, so I am really unsure if people got the point about this being a Paradox.
I haven't said anything about it being or not being a paradox?
However, the reason for it being one is _misunderstanding_ , although he specifically states in the video that it isn't (7:20 mark).
While the "problem" has a true answer easy to calculate, the factors are presented in a confusing way which is resulting in a veridical paradox. Ie, it's made to be misunderstood.
I suspect you misunderstood the point of my original comment, so I'm not sure what point your replies are refering to.
It's the same analogy as the silver potato really, but he is explaining it in a pretty roundabout manner when presenting the solution.
2:29 "probably broke the scale"
me every day when i stand on my scale
You're the only vsauce that actually uploads
vsauce actually has a lot of good content on it as well. you just have to pay to watch it.
it's too bad they went to that format, vsauce used to be one of my favorite channels
Is this VSause? Imo Michaels latest video on DONG is way more informative than this.
This is like talks 5 minutes about simple mathematical equation.
1% = 1/100
2%= 1/50
Makes sense to me bucko
1% = 1/100
2% = 1/50 or 2/100
I really hope you were joking but if not,then oh boy
@@demenetori7976 He's not. 1 pound of potato material remains after dehydration. So you can just ask yourself "1 pound of potato material is 2% of how many total potato pounds?" to answer the question. 1 pound is 2% of 50 pounds since 1/50 equals .02. Although 1/50 is equivalent to 2/100, in this example 2/100 would be for a different potato, since our potato still only has 1 pound of potato material not 2. These potatoes are however similar (as in, similar triangles from geometry class).
@@demenetori7976 you got wooshed on a "joke" but it wasn't a joke (it's fact) but it has "joke" material and yeah you arn't totally wrong (2%= 1/50 or 2/100)
but he said potato dried not grow more potato stuff so you are kinda wrong you did got your fact right but you didnt got what he ment so i call this woooshed on a non-joke
@@demenetori7976 What he said is literally the explanation in a nutshell.
"You must hug your potatoes, so that they know that you care."
- Vsauce2, 2018
lol the exact same comment from one day after this one was liked, not this one, although they are just one below the other, GET REKT
7:03 yo my dude kevin is a damn robot he just picked up the pen prefectly without looking away from the camera
2:50when hes circling "wrong" some one needs to make that into a gif!
@ לביא גלזמן I don't think anybody thought he would do it himself XD
Thanks~!
The problem is the *98% and 2%* measurements of the potato, after a night has passed, *are percentages of the new potato,* not the original... let me explain:
If the potato is 100kg and 1% of that weight is solid, then the solid obviously weighs 1kg and the water weighs 99kg.
Then you take away 1% of the weight, in water, and you are left with 98kg of water, and still 1kg of the solid.
Thus the potato *does weigh 99kg.*
The error is in saying the unchanged solid is then 2% of the potato's total weight. If the solid (1kg) was 2% of the potato, then yes, it would weigh 50kg in total. *But you wouldn't presume this is the case, the way he describes it.* 1kg, after the removal of some of the water actually accounts for 1/99 or ~1.0101%.
Hopefully this clears it up for some people :)
And yes, I know I used kg, but it doesn't make a difference as we are discussing percentages and unspecified measurements, also I'm not sure what the abbreviation for pounds is, or really how they work at all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
VexinatorDesigns I highly appreciate the clarification of to which I couldn’t understand prior to this comment and I thank thee.
Note;
Especially that part where you said that 2% of the unchanged solid is still 1kg
Another Note:
Pounds is Lbs or lbs
VexinatorDesigns thanks for commenting this so i didnt have to. Also pounds is abreviated as
lb or lbs
That is el be or el be ess
Thanks, now it makes sense. So this was more of a trick question than a paradox :\
I feel like he's explaining two separate concepts.
First is :- What would be left after 1% evaporates? Removing 1% of 100 lb which would leave almost 99 lb. [Depending if it were by weight or by volume]
Second is:- Doubling the solid content from 1% to 2% which would equate to removing 50% of the water content.
Those are two separate things.
@@itismethatguy No, the water content didn't half nor did the solid content double. The assumption that losing 1% of water results in 2% of the total being solids is simply wrong.
@@uweschroeder This isn’t an assumption at all. Losing weight from 99% of water for 100 lb to 98% of water entails that the total weight on which the 98% water is obtained must be decreased to 50 lb, namely, solid accounts for 2% of weight, still 1 lb, and water must be 49 lb now.
@@yongmrchen So assume you weigh 100kg, 1% of which are solids. So it's 99kg of water and 1 kg of solids. Now you take a laxative and expel 1% of the water, that is about 990grams of water. That does not mean that the solids are suddenly 1.9kg, because you don't weigh 100kg anymore.
So doing the "it's suddenly 2% solids" is nothing but a percentage calculation that has no base in reality, because the new 100% of which to base your solids content is less than the 100kg. By the end of the day, what you do is increase the solids concentration, so you mess with the mixture but one percent of 99% is still 0.99% and not 50%
PS: What you assume is that the ratio of solids to water remains constant, but that isn't the case or dehydration wouldn't work.
@uweschroeder Actually, I think you totally misunderstood what the key information in the so-called paradox but not-a-paradox-at-all case. The decrease in the potato weight that is measured, and entirely caused, by the decresae of water from the original 99% of total weight to the current 98% of total weight (this can only happen when you end up having 49 lb water and 1 lb solid, and solid remains unchanged) is NOT the same as the water that decreases from 99% of the water to the 98% of the water. If the question itself may not be so clear, the explanation in the video is crystal clear.
Easier solution with easier presentation: "1 lbs in 100 lbs = 1% " --> "1 lbs in ? lbs =2%"
He misleadingly made a very simple question and *twisted* it to make it look more complicated.
That's the *opposite* of what an *educator* is supposed to do!
But why pounds? Its amazing how adding pounds helps your brain understand it but others would rather imagine potatos...
I honestly have no idea what you are saying with this. I like how he explained it more
Dale Crane it’s the same answer as the video
1 / 100 = .01 or 1% and 1 / x = .02 or 2%
x = 50
he made it very complicated
Well it wouldn’t be a paradox if he made it simple. Because vsauce doesn’t know what a paradox is.
This doesn’t feel like a Vsause episode.
It is indeed different from the others. Kevin's videos are sometimes goofy and funny, sometimes they give you the goose bumps for making you feel the gravity of this universe (haha). This was definitely a goofy one.
c'mon guys we got Shona, it at least /sounded/ like a vsauce episode lol
I mean yeah it's a little different from a "traditional" vsauce video but the personality is the same and nevertheless it was still quite an interesting topic and explanation.
It's basic math + misleading information. Leaving it out "overnight" to dry a little is not an appropriate way to increase the concentration of solids by 100%.
Haven't watched any vSauce content in years. Today I was curious and watched this video. Yep, he has gone insane...
J1428753 Like I said, haven't watched any vSauce (1,2 or 3) content of any kind in years. Last I remember Kevin was with a beanie.
"Excuse me potatoes"
-My teacher to my class
Seems less a paradox and more of a question poorly asked.
It's a veridical paradox - a surprising but true answer. A poorly asked question is a paradox of vagueness, which would be a type of falsidical paradox.
Yes... If you say "1% OF the water evaporates over night" than you don't have the shown outcome.... So from 100 water molecules 99 would be left. It's a question of what you look at....
No, it's just your brain taking the fast way. Every body does it if the answer seem simple.
the real paradox is that, this simple math problem is called a paradox
+Aaron Lowe thanks now I get that it was a joke and that you werent joking that it was and I also get the joke itself because I reread the original comment
+Grubiantoll my definition of paradox is "a question which is unanswerable due not to a lack of information but rather the nature of the question itself"
Examples of things which are _almost_ paradoxes:
- This statement is false. (because the paradox is "is the statement true or false?")
- I always lie. (because same as the one before and also, not always lying is not necessarily never lying)
- The Fermi Paradox (because really we are just lacking in information)
- x=1+x what is x? (because x=1+1+1+⋯=∞ using recursive substitution)
- What does the fox say? (becaause really we are just lacking in information)
- What other paradoxes are there? (because really we are just lacking in information, JK this one is not even remotely a paradox)
The opposite of this is telling people that one drink a day doubles your risk of throat cancer. Okay, so instead of the risk being like 1 in 1,000 it's closer to 2 in 1,000. That's an increase of only 0.1% of the sample size, but it's still a 100% increase in throat cancer risk. (Not the actual risk assessment figures; just numbers used as a hypothetical example)
Oh man! What u wrote clicked with me instantly!
I thought I was going crazy while watching this, and worse yet, feeling disillusioned with it all.
So thank you. :)
Which is why one should always ask "Is this relative risk?" when newspaper headlines make the shocking claim that X increases your risk of cancer (or dementia, or heart disease, or some other harm) by 80%.
Oh dang, gotta check the replies before I comment. Good thing I'm not the only one tired of this
This was like the least paradoxical paradox I’ve ever encountered
"Potatoes Are Delicious!"
-Colorado Potato Beetles, 1811
Person A: Hey, want some salad?
Person B: ...That's a water bottle.
Person A: Eh, close enough.
The paradox lays in the way the question is asked, confusing between percentages and quantities. By removing 1 part of water out of 99, the solid goes from 1% to 1,01% and not 2%, while the water goes from 99% to 98,99%. How much water do you need to remove to get the solid become 2%? Way easier to understand.
Hey kevin! A simple way to explain it is that. The 1% of solid potato is equal to 1lbs.
Since the weight of the solid doesn’t change, only its proportion to its weight in which it becomes 2%.
So 1lbs / 2% = 50lbs
Therefore 50lbs less 1lbs of solid is equal to 49 which apparently the weight of the water.
Flies away..
@Tethlocah1 basically. It's like when people call water Di-hydrogen Monoxide. You make something simple appear over complicated in order to be validated by society.
tansan143 ya well said, I just went algebra on it and it was so easy to understand.
I love it how you can watch each vsauce channel goes insane. It's quite beautiful
I’m a couch potato, eating potato chips, while watching this on a potato phone, on a potato farm.
This is much easier if you just represent things as fractions instead of in percents.
1% is 1 out 100.
2% is 1 out of 50.
100 - 50 = 50
Wait... so 1% of the water = 50% of the total weight of the potato. How can 1% of anything equal 50% of the same thing. *mind explodes*
Wrong, % = percent = per 100
so 2% isnt 1 out of 50
Umm.. wait..
Uh it kinda is i guess..
2% is not 1% higher than 1%
but 100% higher.
This means 1% is not 1% less than 2%
but 50% less.
Edit: changed 200% to 100%, sorry about that.
no lt's 100% higher then 1%. cuz (1% is 100% of 1%) and (2% is 200% of 1%) so (200%-100% = 100%.)
John Apawan I hope you know that 200% is the same thing as 100%
Truth. This guy has no clue how to do math. I don't understand how there's 29K upvotes and 4K downvotes... Should clearly be the other way around as this is about as flawed as it can get. If he said that 1% to 2% is a change of 1 percentage point he would be right, but he doesn't say that.
How does the solids suddenly change from 1% to 2%? No explanation for that is given o.O
Clearly if 99% (99 kg) is water and 1% (1 kg) is solids then if 1% of the water evaporates that leaves 99 - (99 * 0.01) = 98.01 kg water and the same 1 kg solids as before, a total of 99.01 kg is left after one night.
So the composition is now 1 / 99.01 = 1.0099% solids and 98.01 / 99.01 = 98.9900% water (both results rounded to 4 decimals).
If it's looked at step by step percentage reduction, it is easy to see why it is not a paradox.
99 + 1 = 100 (99% water)
98 + 1 = 99 (98/99 = 98.98% water)
97 + 1 = 98 (97/98 = 98.87% water)
.
.
50 + 1 = 51 (50/51 = 98.03% water)
49 + 1 = 50 (49/50 = 98% water)
He literally said in the video that not all paradoxes have no clear answer. Feel free to search up the definitions of paradox.
Since many see the progression of 1 to 2 as 1+1 rather than 1*2, many get a wrong answer at first, therefore it is a paradox. It's _kind_ of like, "the more you cut at a net, the fewer holes there will be" or, "the more you remove from a hole, the larger it is." It's completely logical, but it may seem illogical at first.
But what's more watery than lettuce... WATEr it is about %100 water
TheDeepDebunk damn ur right water is about 100% water. Or... is it? (Vsauce theme)
Rellek Llepham WATER IS MADE FROM OXYGEN AND HYDROGEN....
but what is hydrogen?
Actually I mean that usually water contains other matter if it is not distilled)
Brain.exe has stopped working
Your computer is a godamn potato, thats the solution to your application crash issue... I'll see myself out now.
*some seemingly rhetorical question* kevin: WRONG!
Poorly stated problems are not paradoxes.
It's a veridical paradox - a surprising but true answer. A poorly asked question is a paradox of vagueness, which would be a type of falsidical paradox.
A veridical paradox isn't a paradox, that's a misnomer. This question isn't a paradox, simple as that.
and in case of debate: Paradox, noun "a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true."
A paradox must be self-contradictory, even if only apparently so, but the logic used to support this supposed "paradox" is flawed, not well founded nor logically acceptable, therefore, this is in fact not a paradox.
EclipsedArchon "Paradox, noun " a SEEMINGLY absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition [...]"
A paradox MUST be self-contradictory [...]". Nice logic you got there.
"Too much water"
-IGN
RealGamerManz And more recently their review on Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire remakes.
To turn vegetables to people, you need an old toy.
To turn people to vegetables, you need a high impact collision.
To turn toys into vegetables you need a toy story; to turn people into vegetables you need a human story
To vegetables people to toy turn, you old an need.
To toy turn people to vegetables, you collision a need.
0:58
That music =
*50% Stranger Things Intro + 50% Electrodynamix*
99 lb water + 1 lb solid = 100 lb potato
99% + 1 % = 100%
Assume solid lb is constant
Percentage equation: (solid lb / potato lb) * 100 = % solid
Initial conditions: (1 lb / 100 lb) * 100 = 1 %
New condition: (1 lb / ? lb) * 100 = 2 %
Rearranging:
1 lb / ? lb = 2 % / 100
? lb / 1 lb = 100 / 2 %
= 50
49 lb water + 1 lb solid = 50 lb potato
Or, 1 is 1 % of 100, and 1 is 2 % of 50.
Not really a paradox. It's just people assuming an answer instead of doing the maths.
You can argue the same thing for every mathematical paradox.
I mean, it's called "paradox" if the right answer doesn't feel quite right until further investigation. Not wrong to call this paradox.
The problem with using that definition is that instead of a pardox *being* an *actual* contradiction in logic, a paradox can just be anything that doesn't *seem* to, or anything a person *feels* doesn't make sense, regardless of the logical soundness or whether there *are* any contradictions in the proposed paradox.
It therefore becomes subjective based on who's deciding whether there is or isn't a paradox, and much less specific, and (I think) less useful as a word.
A person can make the assumption that heavy objects fall faster than light objects, and can *call* it a paradox all they like when their "logic" doesn't match up with reality, but there is no contradiction; it's just that person being wrong and not knowing basic things.
If we use the more objective definition, I am not wrong in saying that the potato paradox isn't a paradox because there's no contradiction.
And if we use the subjective definition, I'm still not wrong in saying it's not a paradox because it *seems* to me to make sense, and therefore isn't a paradox *to me* .
Or are we defining paradoxes based solely on what the majority think, which is often wrong, rather on any actual logic?
He explained in the video that it is a different type of paradox. D I F F E R E N T T Y P E O F P A R A D O X.
David McGhee no, it is them changing what they are talking about half way through the question. It was CLEARLY started 1% of the water evaporated. He then increased the solid to liquid RATIO in a way that would not happen in reality. He is correct that the weight of the solid does not change but that does not mean it magically becomes 2% but would take up a proportional percentage compared to the water content. The question is ridiculous plain and simple.
Jesus, I think everyone one at Vsauce is losing their damn minds.
each video, they act crazier and crazier, but still with the spit facts.
Stopped watching any VSauce video since they've slowly spiraled into non sequitur madness. The old videos were weird, but they made sense. These on the other hand...
After gaining a certain amount of insight, you begin sinking into madness.
How does this not make sense it is so simple. Plus just because they made one video that isn't that wierd compared to others doesn't mean that they just quit making interesting videos.
I think the way you worded it was unclear.
You said pretty much "what if it loses 1% of its water?"
1% of its 99 grams of water is roughly 1 gram of water.
What I think would have been more accurate is: "what if its ratio of water to solid material went down by 1%?"
Anyway, pretty cool paradox.
who said it was 99 grams of water in the first place? it was 99% water and 1% solid but the 1% solid might weigh way less than 1 gram and therefore 99% water could weigh 99.5 grams for example
I believe he was saying that the potato was 100 grams and 1% of that weight was solid matter
J. Villeneuve please just completely disregard my comment, i don‘t know what type of extrinsic logic i made use of, must have been on drugs but my brain is back now
Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew.
Peace & Love slice super thin and make a nice caserol too. Chives. Cheese. Boom.
love the way he breaks into laughter by himself like a mad scientist
The way this is phrased makes you think 1% of the water evaporated, and not the 1% switching sides.
Potatoes are made out of 1% solid and 99% water. So the question ..
God can walk on water and I can walk on potatoes so does that mean that I'm 99% God?
when you find out that salad is 95% soup
Skelyvelocirap which would mean that soup is how much % water?
Soup is a drink.
This was more of a trick question than a paradox. If it had been proposed or asked differently, many would have got it instantly. I was unnecessarily trying to figure out how this was a paradox than doing a basic math problem.
Wait... I thought the 50 lb answer was the obvious one, and was wondering where the paradox was... The water is what goes away, so the solid is what remains. The solid percentage doubles, so the mass cuts in half.
Yep. Not sure what I was supposed to get out of this.
And since I didn't see it yet, solving this in a purely algebraic way:
concentration = mass of concentrate/total mass.
98% water concentration = [mass of water]/([mass of water + mass of solids])
.98=X/(X+1)
.98X + .98 = X
.98 = .02X
98 = 2X
49 = X
Total mass = 49 lbs water + 1 lb solid = 50 lbs.
Basically anyone over the age of 16 should not find this paradoxical in the least...
Sorry, I was born before this kind of math(s) was invented. Our dinosaurs never had a chance to dry out, we just tore them up and ate 'em straight away!
This “paradox” was one of the heuristics taught in grade 6 math class. Not really that confusing once you finish elementary school
_Dear Math_
*Please grow up. I'm tried of solving your problems for you*
this feels like more of a trick question than a paradox
Paradox:
"A statement that is *_seemingly_* contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true"
It's not a paradox because the answer to the question is immediately apparent and completely intuitive. The dry mass doubled in proportion so the total mass must have dropped in half. If you didn't figure it out in under a second you're probably brain damaged.
I have no idea what I just watched but I feel the pain of those potatoes, they just wanna be cut, mashed, fried, layered turned into clocks... anything... potatoes are magical and their potential is being wasted
im disturbed that you dont round up that 98%
DMPhysics Right?! But i think it was because we were using physical objects and not just numbers. When it comes to real objects, rounding down to the nearest whole number makes more sense. You can't bring 9 and a half cars to the carmeet.
Christian Martinez ah yes you’re completely right . I wasn’t even thinking !
+Christian Martinez yes you can, it is called a "smart" car or a fiat 500
Iamonepercent wrong.. because a fiat 500 or a smart car are considered cars and no known constant is labelled to a cars value (ie, length width height and weight)..
Good Guys Eric/Kevin, could've added 22 seconds to the video to get 3x revenue, but chose to keep the video concise.
ammo1317 if a video is longer than 10 minutes you can add mid-video advertisements
Would have been so much easier to demonstrate if you just swap a second red potato for a silver then divide the pile. Doesn't even seem like a paradox at that point.
This is only a paradox if you're bad at math.
It's not really a paradox, it is more a mind trick where the instinctive response by the brain is wrong, because the brain prefers to take instinctive short cuts than expend energy working things out properly. To over-ride this instinctive reaction, it helps to understand what a percentage actually means, once you realise it is a fraction, then you can think how do you double or halve a fraction by operating on the numerator or denominator, then you get to the logical answer.
Adam Lea I would agree. It's not a paradox because it's not counterintuitive. Once you do the math, the result isn't at all confusing or even surprising. However, our heuristics cause us to think of thd wrong answer right away before doing the math.
The word "paradox" itself implies that you're not using math, but common sense or intuition. And by that it's a paradox. Or at least a surprising and counter-intuitive answer.
So .. not a paradox, Just a 5th grade math question about percentages
I prefer treating it like a fraction as 1/100 means 100lbs where as 1/50 means 50lbs 1/50=98% so treating it as a fraction is far superior then treating it like a percentage.
Also saw someone who focuses on the solid mass and figures the weight based on how much one would have to multiple it to reach 100% so 2% means multiplying by 50 meaning it weighs 50lbs.
speedy01247 *"I prefer treating it like a fraction.... so treating it as a fraction is far superior then treating it like a percentage. "*
Go back to school - percentage IS a fraction.
they are still different... its much easier to visualize and do math with lets say 2/3 than it is 66.6666........67%
So if the potato’s 97% water, 3% potato, it’ll weigh 25 pounds.
This is explained so complicated
Just say this problem comes because the 1% stayes the same.
So if out of 100 the 1% solid is 1 gramm, it stayes the same.
If the water reduces to 98%, the solid is the rest 2%. If 2% is 1 gramm, you just have to multypli it with 50 (2%--> 100%) so 50 grams.
And done
HundefutterCrepperlpHD Except when the water reduces, it reduces to 98.89898989 and the solid is the other 1.01010101.
But in order to get that so called "simple" explenation
Yoy would have had to already know the answer,
(50lbs) in wich the people who came up with the paradox did not....at the least....
Another way would be with a rule of three:
If 2% ---> 1 gr
98% ---> (98x1)/2= 49 gr
Which makes 100% = 50 gr
"what's more water than, well, watermelon"
*dramatic pause*
"lettuce."
This was explained terribly
@Jackson Wray
You have 100lbs, 99% of it is water, 1% is solid, so 1lbs is solid.
After the potato dried, only 98% of it's weight are water and 2% are solid.
Those 2% are still 1lbs, because the solid part didn't dry. So when 2% of the weight equals 1lbs then 100% must equal 50 times that -> 50 lbs
Its a hell of a lot more interesting than saying"2% is double of 1%"
No, i didn't get it either and i understood other vsauce videos about way more complex topics. If i get it after reading a short comment but didn't get it after watching a 10 minute long video there is obviously something wrong with the explanation. Also - we get it you are smart!! good boy.
Definitely one of the funniest videos! I laughed more than I learned. I still don't understand this damn potato paradox!
Did you really just spend 10 minutes on a simple mathematics problem? There's some potential here for a good video, like the talk about how humans perceive quantities, but you leaned way too heavily on a simple phenomenon, that should have been a small example of the nature of ratios.
Apparently 50% of the people on the comment section still don't understand it so maybe he should've spent longer on it, eh?
Thanks, I thought I was missing the paradox. Turns out the paradox is that people should be able to work out %, but many of them can't.
It's basic maths. 2% -1% : basically half of the total amount. Or each potato losing 0.5 of their mass would still equal 50. I love vsauce but I agree that this video was poorly explained.
Stenky, you are actually a troglodyte. Crawl back to your cave before you embarrass yourself.
Captain Munch lol watched it again... If we loose 1% of water (which is also 1% of weight) we would have 99lbs but we wouldn't have 98% water and 2% solid :P we would have 98,98 water and 1,020408... Solid... So the part about the mass was right, the ratio was wrong :P? Btw thanks for explaining it to me instead of being like every other *jerk* on this -amazing- platform where we have -great- community and -friendly- people!
bad explanation. lots of math humble jumble instead of explaining that to make one measure doublle , you need to divide the other by two . but it dosent look smart this way does it ...
elikopo kopo That’s wrong, dividing 99% by 2 would not make the 1% be 2%, it would be 50.5% because 99%/2 is 49.5.
You don't divide any measures by 2. We know there will always be 1g of potato matter so in order for that 1g to be 2% we need a total mass of 1/(1+x)=.02 [x being the mass of the water in grams]. Simple algebra reveals x to be 49g of water meaning 50g of water evaporated.
For 0.99 proportion of water.
x/(x+1)=0.99
x=0.99(x+1)
x=0.99x+0.99
0.01x=0.99
x=99
For 0.98 proportion of water.
x/(x+1)=0.98
x=0.98(x+1)
x=0.98x+0.98
0.02x=0.98
x=49
For q proportion of water, where 0
Another potato paradox:
Everything in the universe is either a potato or not a potato
Go tell someone that salad is 5% away from being soup.
I wanted to be salad when I was a kid :)
Told my mom. She replied with a simple "hm."
Mission Accepted
Vsauce2 no
yes