Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Every Child is Special - Proved

I've been so bitten by the Aamir Khan movie bug that I think about a of lot of them these days... One of those thoughtful moments, I happened to be reading Wiki entry on "Interesting Numbers". I just thought, Aamir's statement in Taare Zameen Par could also be proved, and logically, using this paradox... :)

Aamir says, "Every Child is Special."

Let us prove this using the method of contradiction. Assume that not every child is special. That means the set of all children can be divided into "special" and "not special" children. Assume this set is mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. Now not special is akin to saying there is nothing unique in the child as Aamir believes every child has something unique in him and is thus, "Special". Let us consider this set of "not special" children. Arrange them in order of height.

Now we find that in the set there is a child who is the tallest. That is something unique. The Tallest "Not Special" child. so we should remove him from the "Not Special" set and add him to the other set.

Now from the remaining, we arrange them in order of their ages. There is an eldest child. He'll be the first "Not Special" child to become an adult. Now that is something special. Let us transfer him too.

Going in the above way, we'll be left with one child who is "Not Special". He's the only "Not Special" child. That is really unique and special.

Q.E.D: Every Child is SPECIAL :)