The Glass Half Full
You are presented with a glass that is approximately half full of water and you are asked the question is the glass half full or half empty?. Well, if you ask me that question, you'll get an answer that you may not have heard before.
The glass is completely full. The bottom portion has water in it, the top portion has air in it, the hole glass has light, gravity, alpha particles,
neutrinos, electricity, magnetism, and a hole lot of other things in it. The glass is, lets say, 10 inches high and has about 5 inches of water in it. But
the glass is not actually 10 inches high because to molecules that make up the inside bottom and the molecules that make up the rim are always
in motion. Therefor the glass is never exactly 10 inches high. The water that fills the bottom half does not sit straight at it's top, it curves up due to
friction with the sides of the glass. And again, the water's molecules are always in motion so the water is never exactly 5 inches high. It is
impossible for any glass to ever be half full of water, you can't do it.
Now, to answer the question "Is the glass half filled with water or half emptied of water?" we would need to know the facts about how the water got
into the glass. Was the glass filled to about half way and then the filling stopped. This would make the glass half filled. Or was the glass filled
completely with water and then about half of it removed. This would make the glass half emptied. Since this information is not provided there is no correct answer to this question.
The truth is that no glass can ever be half full of anything. The laws of physics don't allow that. There is something to be learned from this question (Is the Glass Half Full?) but for me it's learning about the intelligence of the person asking the question.
By Rod Heilfron
Send email to: rodneyj123@cox.net
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