Ratnadeep Sircar

November 2015

You really missed the whole point of the Potato Paradox...

Let's take your 1 mashed potato cylinder and 99 water cylinders example. The logic is not that that 1 mashed potato cylinder becomes 2 mashed potato cylinders, but rather that the 1 mashed potato cylinder now equates to 2% of the total weight (but is still just one cylinder). The only way for this to be achieved is to lose 50 water cylinders (leaving 49 cylinders equaling 98% of the new number of cylinders, which is 50). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.13.187.198 (talk) 03:03, 17 November 2015‎ (UTC)

Hello David, Your message simply confirms what i said: That 1 Mashed potato cylinder cannot become 2. As you say, one way to acheive that it becomes 2%, is by reducing the total weight and removing 50 cylinders. However, the way the question is formulated, only 1% of the water is lost which would be almost 1 cylinder. The removal of more water cylinders is simply not in accordance with the conditions stated in the question, and is not permissible. All the best91.54.69.181 (talk) 16:28, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Sadly you've either not read the question properly, or you have misinterpreted what it says. Nothing in the question says "only 1% of the water is lost". It is the fact that it means something different from what it appears at first glance that makes it a paradox. --David Biddulph (talk) 16:35, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

I see from your original message that you were posting from Germany. If your problem was that you did not understand the English in the en-wiki article, it might be worth following the link to the German equivalent at de:Kartoffelparadoxon. I am not an expert at German, but that article seems to explain it in a different way, and perhaps you might understand that one if English is not your first language. --David Biddulph (talk) 16:47, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

User: Ratnadeep Sircar Hello David, You´re anbsoloutely right, I didn´t read rhe question properly. A friend posed this question to me as " what would the potatoes weigh, if 1% of the water evaporates? ". I have deleted my comments on the main page and would like to apologize to anybody who was offended by them. The equations are correct.

All the same, it leads to another thought: When the water evaporates , the space it occupied would probably, if only partially, be replaced by air. This would mean that the total mass would be higher, as that which is presumed in the solution. As a result one would have to modify the equations and would end up with another result. What do you think about this?

P.S. I wrote this message a few days ago but must have saved it in the wrong section. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ratnadeep Sircar (talk • contribs) 20:22, 23 November 2015‎ (UTC)