The paradox is one of my favorite things. There is, I believe, much to be gained by wrestling with conflict.

I should clarify here that I have no appetite for those stuffy philosophical paradoxes that are designed to prove that nobody can know anything—Bertrand Russell’s paradox about the barber who does and does not shave himself, for example, disgusts me. It describes a situation which cannot be, and those rarely, if ever, happen.

The paradox I am interested in, that I believe is of academic value, is that which is evidently existent and urges us to reconcile illusion. The Monty Hall paradox, for example, pulls our common sense one direction, but mathematics offers a different solution. The jigsaw paradox also is likely to detect subtle errors in our perception. Give it a try. Why do the triangles occupy different areas?