Below is a list of some of the unanswerable questions received so far. While none of the questions are unanswerable beyond any possible test, if any of the questions submitted were not included, it was because they were either: more answerable than not, too long, similar to another question, or not appropriate for or understandable by young children.
No one fully agreed on what makes a question unanswerable. In the end, we want questions that fall somewhere between absolutely unanswerable and merely thought-provoking. i.e., the questions don't have to be provably unanswerable beyond any test, but they can't be merely thought-provoking.
If you would be so kind:
Send more questions! More, different, humorous, strange!
(Notice that there are more of some types in the list and fewer of others.)
Send unanswerable questions and any comments to: Janet Zweig<janetzweig@earthlink.net>
And send this new query and list to other people.
We need several hundred great questions by the end of this year.
Many thanks in advance!
List of unanswerable questions so far -- February 2008
(similar questions have been merged)
What is the opposite of a duck?
How many things are there in this room?
How do they know that no two snowflakes are alike?
What happens when you’re not looking?
If no one sees it, is a sunset still beautiful?
What is time?
Do fish get thirsty?
What is the answer to this question?
Is an apple alive when you eat it?
For how long is now here?
What does the back of a shadow look like?
What do dragons eat?
How many skies are there?
What time is it on the moon right now?
Where is last year's snow?
Can words explain everything?
Where is sound?
Who makes the rules?
How long is a piece of string?
Does every question have an answer?
What time is this place?
What makes something art?
If you replace every part of a boat, is it still the same boat?
How high can you count?
What would it be like to have 4000 eyes, like a housefly?
What is a flazdoosh?
If you shine a red light on a white wall, is the wall white or red? (too long)
What would it be like to live backwards?
Do colors look the same to every person?
If someone says, "I'm lying," is that person lying?
How do you know you’re not dreaming?
How many stars are there?
Are you the same person you were yesterday?
What's the smallest number that's too large to name?
How many possible dogs are there? (an infinite number?)
If your feet were shaped like hands, would they leave handprints? (too long)
What is it like to be a rock?
Why is there something instead of nothing?
What is infinity plus one?
How fast are you moving?
Who was the first human?
Is a chair with one leg still a chair?
How many drops of water are in the ocean?
Where did yesterday go?
Could your parents never have met?
How long is the coastline of Manhattan?
If a bad person always pretends to be good, are they really bad?
Is a crocodile longer or greener?
Can you walk north from the north pole?
If I make a promise to my cat do I have to keep it?
Can a question be wrong?
Can you dig half a hole?
What colour is a mirror?
Where is your mind?
Where were you before you were born?
Is it OK to lie to make someone happy?
Did time have a beginning?
Would this question still say anything if no one could read?
Is the answer to this question "no"?
How fast does time go? (Or: How fast does time pass? How fast is
time? What is the speed of time?)
What is outside the universe?
Would you answer this question the same way tomorrow?
What is the difference between a rabbit?
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
Are more things smaller than you than larger then you?
What is the best painting ever?
Where are numbers?
Are there things that don’t exist?
Are things beautiful because we like them, or do we like things because they’re beautiful? (too long)
Can a hotel with an infinite number of rooms have no room available? (too long)
How many hairs do you have to lose to be bald?
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
What is music?
Why is it good to be good?
Can you prevent your own birth by travelling back in time?
Do animals think?
Why do things have the names that they have?
Is there one world or many worlds?
Can we change the past?
Is it possible to tell lies all the time?
Can you think about nothing?
Is there something bigger than the universe?
Is there an invisible monster behind you?
Do Martians like ice cream?
Have you stopped eating books?
What is at the end of space?
Is it true that cheese or not cheese?
What exactly does it look like at the center of the earth?
What makes something funny?
Do monkeys need time?
Is a sailboat still a sailboat with the sail off?
Where does a mountain end?
Could you be an American and not an American? (can this be used with a different (funnier) word than American?)
What is the name of your name?
What color is the number four? (there were many like this)
Do cats have feelings?
Is an hour longer than a football field?
Is the King of France bald?
What time is it right now?
Can you do something wrong in your dreams?
How much is enough?
What happens to the characters after the end of the story?
In what language do animals think?
What's it like to be a bat?
Is time real?
How big is the biggest number?
If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there, does it make a sound? (too long)
Can you step in the same river twice?
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
What is bigger than the biggest thing imaginable?
How wet is water?
Exactly how tall do you have to be to be tall?
What does purple smell like?
How long is a moment?
How many times can you cut a rope in half? (would this be better or worse using the word “line”?)
Is this sentence true?
Is doing nothing doing something?
What if an unstoppable force met an immovable object?
What happened to the past?
How many words are not in this sentence?
If you do everything there is to do, what can you do next?
Are there colors we can't see?
Do you feel what I feel?
Have we been visited by time travellers from the future?
What would a square circle look like?
Is nothing something?
If there were no people, would murder still be wrong?
Are starfish right handed?
Who does Superman’s laundry?
What is the square root of love?
Where is the point of no return?
Is this a trick question?
Can computers think?
When you stand on your head, which way is up?
If you fall asleep in a dream, where do you wake up?
Can anyone read your mind?
Are cockroaches conscious?
Do animals have feelings?
Is your mind in your head?
Can you split the smallest possible thing in half?
Why can’t we all get along?
Do snakes have tails?
What will you never guess?
What does it all mean?
How do you know you’re not a computer?
How high is the sky?
How long is forever?
If nobody knows, why not ask her?
Where does nobody live?
Who was the first human?
How many unanswerable questions are there?
Has everything doubled in size overnight?
Contributors so far:
Suggested categories from above contributors (much overlap in these):
Paradoxes, internally self-contradictory
Logical impossibilities, logical contradictions
Self-referential questions (If I say, I am lying,” am I lying?)
Ethical questions (Why is it good to be good?)
Scientifically unanswerable questions, mysteries, answers unknown as yet, the unknowable
Questions that need the further question: “relative to what?”
Category errors, category mistakes
Questions that presuppose something false
Ambiguous questions
Questions requiring fuzzy logic (“Where does a mountain end?”)
Vague or imprecise questions
Questions with an incorrect use of words
Semantic malformation
Questions that depend on how you define the terms in the question
Questions for which there is no meaningful answer
Questions having to do with non-existing or controversial definitions
Questions that request a specific answer to a question that can only be answered in a general way
Questions that Sets limits on permissible answers such as to exclude all possible answers
Unanswerables that play on illusions of specificity
Unanswerables that play on subjective experience and privileged access
Nonsense