unexpected hanging paradox

noun

Definitions

  1. A paradox about a person's expectations about the timing of a future event which they are…

    A paradox about a person's expectations about the timing of a future event which they are told will occur at an unexpected time. It is based on the idea that a prisoner, told that he will be hanged on a day unknown to him, concludes that "I cannot be hanged on Friday because if I haven't been hanged by the end of Thursday then it would no longer be a surprise", and so on backwards through the week.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for unexpected hanging paradox. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA