835
submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by xkcdbot@lemmy.world to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

Title text:

Unstoppable force-carrying particles can't interact with immovable matter by definition.

Transcript:

[An arrow pointing to the right and a trapezoid are labeled as 'Unstoppable Force' and 'Immovable Object' respectively.]
[The arrow is shown as entering the trapezoid from the left and the part of it in said trapezoid is coloured gray.]
[The arrow is shown as leaving the trapezoid to the right and is coloured black.]
[Caption below the panel:] I don't see why people find this scenario to be tricky.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3084/

explainxkcd for #3084

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[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 65 points 4 weeks ago

The expression as I heard included "an irresistible force."

[-] SGG@lemmy.world 85 points 4 weeks ago

That's on the nsfw version of xkcd

[-] Randelung@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

xkcd after dark, or xkcdad. But not pronounced xkc-dad.

[-] sxan@midwest.social 5 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah, irresistible force is the version I know. Now I'm wondering if there are even more versions. Are they regional deviations?

[-] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 25 points 4 weeks ago

Well I'm from Utica and I've never heard the term "irresistible force"

[-] Tyoda@lemm.ee 16 points 4 weeks ago

Not in Utica, no. It's an Albany expression.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 4 weeks ago

Sure could go for some steamed hams right about now..

[-] Get_Off_My_WLAN@fedia.io 21 points 4 weeks ago

While not what you're asking for, but fun fact, in Asia, this sort of paradox is represented by the story of the all-piercing spear and the unpierceable shield in Chinese philosophy. So in Chinese and Japanese, the word for 'paradox' or 'contradiction' literally means 'spear-shield' (矛盾).

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[-] Goretantath@lemm.ee 64 points 4 weeks ago

Facepalm Man i'm dumb, this is a great answer to that thought experiment.

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[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 36 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Maybe the universe will crash due to division by zero, floating-point error, integer overflow and segmentation fault, all of them occurring simultaneously. The objects will experience infinite velocity and infinite forces, there will be rounding errors, the system will run out of RAM and storage space. The universal CPU will max out all threads, and run out of cooling capacity. The hardware catches fire, the entire universe immediately collapses into a singularity, resulting in a new big bang as the system reboots. Oh, and the log files are corrupted, so good luck troubleshooting that one.

[-] gnufuu@infosec.pub 21 points 4 weeks ago

A popup will appear asking you to buy the "Extended Physics" DLC

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 7 points 4 weeks ago

First billion years free. After that it’s 17.99 per millennia.

[-] lud@lemm.ee 6 points 4 weeks ago

What currency?

I doubt the universe accepts Euro or whatever.

[-] noxonad@lemmy.world 8 points 4 weeks ago

It's just 17.99. Take it or leave it.

[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 weeks ago

That's actually how black holes are made

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[-] ianhclark510 29 points 4 weeks ago

"What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?" that image doesn't show a force meeting an object

[-] BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org 128 points 4 weeks ago

They met, they just didn’t interact. Kinda like me at a work party.

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 9 points 4 weeks ago

There is no force without interaction, just linear momentum.

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[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 21 points 4 weeks ago
[-] jecxjo@midwest.social 19 points 3 weeks ago

i think I've made that game engine before.

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 14 points 4 weeks ago

so if god creates rock so heavy that it can't lift it, its hand just passes through the rock? makes sense.

[-] Gladaed@feddit.org 13 points 4 weeks ago

A rock so heavy you cannot lift it is not an immovable object. Just cause you are weak does not mean you are right.

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 6 points 4 weeks ago
[-] traceur301 15 points 4 weeks ago

Dear God,

A rock so heavy you cannot lift it is not an immovable object. Just cause you are weak does not mean you are right.

Kind regards, me

[-] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 12 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)
[-] humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago

Joke’s on you, old man! I have a chariot of iron!

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

I think if God creates a rock so heavy he can't lift it, it's probably a black hole. By definition we can't know what happens inside a black hole, because no information escapes the event horizon. As it's now consistent with known physics that we can't know many aspects of this interaction between God and the black hole, I think this paradox is basically solved. We don't know any more about the interaction, but it's no longer a paradox, it's consistent with physics.

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[-] Saleh@feddit.org 6 points 4 weeks ago

God is distinct from the creation and has no physical shape inside the creation so the idea of "object too heavy to lift" is already conceptually nonsensical.

But also in the scope of our physics: What would an object be that is too heavy to "lift" for anyone and anything? It would be the heaviest object in the universe. So what will happen with the heaviest object in the universe? It would be the main center of gravity for everything else. In the same way you cannot "lift" the earth, but rather lift yourself from it as your force will just propel you away from the earth rather than the earth away from you, while you are inside the area dominated by earths gravitational field.

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

When you jump you are pushing the earth away from yourself a little bit, and then some of your gravity pulls the earth back toward you. You have moved the earth, and for a brief moment your jump has in fact altered Earth's orbit.

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[-] argarath@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago

Dammit I should have posted my exact same solution back when I thought of it for the first time, but I was lazy so eh my fuck up

[-] Charlxmagne@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago

Pretty sure none of these exist so idk why it bothered any1 in the first place.

[-] Harvey656@lemmy.world 8 points 4 weeks ago

You clearly haven't met my mother.

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[-] pyre@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

if people only bothered to think about things that exist (especially things that they think exist) we would probably go the way of the dodo. funnily enough that would prevent the dodos from going that way but whatever.

I highly recommend watching the Vsauce video on supertasks—it's a great video as expected from Vsauce but also ends on a great note about people and their tendency to think about things like this.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 6 points 4 weeks ago

Neutrinos are pretty close to an unstoppable force: they can pass right through the earth without being stopped.

I believe this is an expectation of dark matter, to being even closer to an unstoppable force. Perhaps a reason we haven’t found it yet would a because we don’t have a detector that can stop it

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

These kinds of contradicitons exist in man made structures, such as laws, rules and regulations. In situations like that, a judge has to pick which rule to follow and which one to ignore. The first time that happens, it becomes the standard solution (precedent) for those kinds of problems.

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[-] billwashere@lemmy.world 6 points 4 weeks ago
[-] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago

So who would win in a fight between the Juggernaut and the Blob?

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this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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