Is it possible..

This is an odd concept that I've been thinking about lately. Is it possible for us to conceive of something that is physically impossible? You can talk about unicorns and flying spaghetti monsters, but neither of those things are physically impossible. I've been trying to think of something which could never exist under any circumstances, but I haven't been able to. I'm not talking about abstract concepts here like married bachelors or square circles. Those are just issues with language and naming. 

Time travel?

Amidoinitrite?

No because going really really fast = time travel.

Careful now, you may very well prove the existance of God.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_argument

I think he's essentially saying: Can I think something that can't be thought. Otherwise...I have no idea...

Go back in time and kill your grandfather. You will then not exist, and not kill your grandfather. You will then exist because you did not kill your grandfather (as you never existed) and you will be In an infinite loop of magna-patricide. But you assassination attempt was a failure as he is infinitely resurrected.

There was an argument I read somewhere for the impossibility of god, or omnipotence in general.

Basically, it asks if god can create a stone so heavy that he can't lift it. If he can, then he isn't omnipotent due to not being able to lift it, and if he can't, he isn't omnipotent due to not being able to create it. In both cases he can't be omnipotent.

No because going really really fast = time travel.

No it doesn't.  You are doing it wrong.

A molecule being made up of matter and anti-matter simultaniously and stable.

Two magets having their like poles attract.

The sun suddenly burning up all of it's fuel and collapsing into a cold iron ball in a matter of 10 minutes.

Generating more energy than you put into a system assuming a closed system.

Pi is rational and finite.

What about a magnetic monopole?

An unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

I like to contemplate the contents of the zero.

I can imagine a photon stationary in a vacuum, which is not possible, yet I can imagine it.
Or a sensible post by Parsifal. But that's a little far fetched.

I like to contemplate the contents of the zero.

Berny
Stop with the calls already!

Quote from: Keldarion Typrax on December 27, 2010, 07:24:32 AM

No because going really really fast = time travel.

No it doesn't.  You are doing it wrong.

If you were to travel at the speed of light away from earth, travel a distance of 5 light years and come back 10 years later, then it would appear to those on Earth that you had gone and come back instantly but you would still be 10 years older.

I can imagine a photon stationary in a vacuum, which is not possible, yet I can imagine it.

How do you know it is not possible?

A molecule being made up of matter and anti-matter simultaniously and stable.

Two magets having their like poles attract.

The sun suddenly burning up all of it's fuel and collapsing into a cold iron ball in a matter of 10 minutes.

Generating more energy than you put into a system assuming a closed system.

Pi is rational and finite.

That's the purpose of this thought process; to figure out if things we think we know to be true, are really true or not. It does no good to just ignore them and say that they are true without constantly examining them. This is how discoveries are made and how we further our intelligence.

wut?

Quote from: Mr Pseudonym on December 27, 2010, 04:19:30 PM

Quote from: Keldarion Typrax on December 27, 2010, 07:24:32 AM

No because going really really fast = time travel.

No it doesn't.  You are doing it wrong.

If you were to travel at the speed of light away from earth, travel a distance of 5 light years and come back 10 years later, then it would appear to those on Earth that you had gone and come back instantly but you would still be 10 years older.

Technically, what you are describing is happening right now to Earth and everybody on it. I am pretty sure that what Mr Pseudonym meant was to travel backwards in time, which would be a bit trickier, if not impossible.

Quote from: Keldarion Typrax on December 27, 2010, 09:23:22 PM

Quote from: Mr Pseudonym on December 27, 2010, 04:19:30 PM

Quote from: Keldarion Typrax on December 27, 2010, 07:24:32 AM

No because going really really fast = time travel.

No it doesn't.  You are doing it wrong.

If you were to travel at the speed of light away from earth, travel a distance of 5 light years and come back 10 years later, then it would appear to those on Earth that you had gone and come back instantly but you would still be 10 years older.

Technically, what you are describing is happening right now to Earth and everybody on it. I am pretty sure that what Mr Pseudonym meant was to travel backwards in time, which would be a bit trickier, if not impossible.

Correct.

Quote from: Thermal Detonator on December 27, 2010, 07:54:45 PM

I can imagine a photon stationary in a vacuum, which is not possible, yet I can imagine it.

How do you know it is not possible?

The same way you do. Troll somewhere else.

Quote from: Lorddave on December 27, 2010, 04:28:22 PM

A molecule being made up of matter and anti-matter simultaniously and stable.

Two magets having their like poles attract.

The sun suddenly burning up all of it's fuel and collapsing into a cold iron ball in a matter of 10 minutes.

Generating more energy than you put into a system assuming a closed system.

Pi is rational and finite.

That's the purpose of this thought process; to figure out if things we think we know to be true, are really true or not. It does no good to just ignore them and say that they are true without constantly examining them. This is how discoveries are made and how we further our intelligence.

The Pi thing I know is not rational and infinite.  I've done the math.

There was an argument I read somewhere for the impossibility of god, or omnipotence in general.

Basically, it asks if god can create a stone so heavy that he can't lift it. If he can, then he isn't omnipotent due to not being able to lift it, and if he can't, he isn't omnipotent due to not being able to create it. In both cases he can't be omnipotent.

This proves nothing except that the author fails to understand omnipotence.

Am I the only one that doesn't understand what the OP is looking for?

I'm not sure even the OP understands what the OP is looking for.

The question is doubly ambiguous. Firstly, physical impossibility is not a fixed notion. Science continues to move the goalposts: it makes possible that which was once impossible.

Secondly, there are varying degrees of conception. I can 'conceive' of a cure for cancer in the vague sense of it being logically possible, but I cannot conceive of it in a complete sense. So in the first sense, yes: it is possible to vaguely conceive of any physically impossible thing. In the second sense, no: it is not possible to completely conceive of a physically impossible thing, otherwise it would no longer be physically impossible.

Quote from: Mrs. Peach on December 27, 2010, 07:49:59 PM

I like to contemplate the contents of the zero.

Berny
Stop with the calls already!

Funny dat. 

Walk on the surface of the sun nekkid. I can imagine it, but it hasn't got a cat in hell's chance of happening.

Am I the only one that doesn't understand what the OP is looking for?

It does seem a bit open to interpretation.

I immediately thought of this:

Quote from: Benocrates on December 28, 2010, 12:39:16 PM

Am I the only one that doesn't understand what the OP is looking for?

It does seem a bit open to interpretation.

I immediately thought of this:

I made one of those out of wood.

I made one of those out of wood.

Excuse my pedantry... It may have looked like it from one angle, but it's called an impossible shape for a reason.