Half empty / Half full ?

Pocari Sweat

Is a one pint beer glass with half a pint of beer in it, half empty or half full?

Karoma

The vessel is twice the required size.

is_that_so

It is what it is. My perception or description of the glass will not affect it.

Pocari Sweat

Its a plain glass, half a pint of beer in it, but would it be correctly described as being half full or half empty?

Bodhidharma

I dont think anyone really needs to think too long or hard about this one. Its really not a philosophical question, more a psychological one. For me its half full, but thats because i am an optimist.

The answer depends on your world view or mood at the time, so the answer i guess would be variable.

18AD

It's half full and half empty.

Pocari Sweat

The question is not being asked in either a philosophical or psychological sense, nor is it hinting at optimism or pessimism, as the question keeps the facts simple and asks for a simple answer.

As there are no comprehensively correct answers yet, or approaches to gain a correct answer, I will give ye a wee clue;

The question contains a brief statement of facts which requires just a small amount of further questioning / discussion as to the sequence of events leading up to how the one pint beer glass with half a pint of beer came into being in order to confirm a correct description.

Crucifix

Pocari Sweat wrote:

The question contains a brief statement of facts which requires just a small amount of further questioning / discussion as to the sequence of events leading up to how the one pint beer glass with half a pint of beer came into being in order to confirm a correct description.

So you think the act of filling or emptying imprints the status on the glass? Personally I'd would say the status is independant of the action, as half way through emptying a glass, you could choose to begin filling it. Therefore it is also possible to make the definition by intention rather than action. I think the glass is both half empty and half full. They are not binary status', but two ways of describing the same thing.

Pocari Sweat

You were so close Crucifix.

OK another clue; With beer, you get a small bit of froth on top of the poured beer (a head) and this can be seen down the inside of the glass as the beer is being drunk.

DadaKopf

Logically, it's an anomaly. Or, an 'undecidable'.

Big deal, really.

18AD

Pocari Sweat wrote:

OK another clue; With beer, you get a small bit of froth on top of the poured beer (a head) and this can be seen down the inside of the glass as the beer is being drunk.

Does drinking the beer have to do with it or is it just an example?

Is the foam considered different to the beer itself? Or is the foam not part of the measure of beer?
If so, there would be numerous other things in the glass besides beer. So the glass would be full with different things, such as CO2, oxygen, water vapour etc...

Pocari Sweat

Beer is beer, and will have to a degree, dissolved gases which are part of its composition anyway. But as the original post mentions it is a one pint beer glass with half a pint of beer in it.

Wee clue, if you had been drinking from the glass, you would have introduced a small trace of saliva onto the rim of the glass and into the contents of the beer.

pbsuxok1znja4r

Quick answer: you don't know if it's full or not. You only specified how much beer was in it. Could be another half-pint of piss in it for all we know.
Also, full of what? Air is a fluid. It probably has a half-pint of air in it. That'd make it full.
I guess that means you could say it's at least half-full.

UU

Well it's half full AND it's half empty like what 18AD said. If it's only half full, then what's the other half? And visa versa. Remember, two halves make a whole!

pbsuxok1znja4r

^It might not be half empty, but it is definitely at least half-full. The only thing you can say with certainty is that it's half full. There might be air, water or any other manner of fluid in the other half of it. It's unspecified.

Jackie laughlin

Drink the bloody beer before it goes flat!

Demetrius

You would have small amount of water/beer vapour in the empty half? So it wouldn't be truely half empty?

Pocari Sweat

Well, the answer is two-fold.

It is full, because there is half a pint of beer and half a pint - usually of air - unless you drink in some strange pubs.

The other answer relating to just the liquid contents (and air is not a liquid - it is a fluid, though) is dependent on whether the bar person was FILLING the glass up to the half way level or if a drinker was EMPTYING the glass down to half way, hence giving it the status of being half full or half empty.

As there were no complete answers, I'll give some posters HALF points.

Jackie laughlin

If the glass was half empty of beer, did someone finish it before it went flat? If the glass is being filled, it's taking an awfully long time. Does the barman need a lash!

18AD

Pocari Sweat wrote:

The other answer relating to just the liquid contents (and air is not a liquid - it is a fluid, though) is dependent on whether the bar person was FILLING the glass up to the half way level or if a drinker was EMPTYING the glass down to half way, hence giving it the status of being half full or half empty.

I would disagree. The previous direction of filling or emptying has nothing to do with the status of the volume of liquid in the glass. For instance, say the drinker was drinking as the drink was being poured and it was pouring as fast as he was drinking and remained at the half way point. By your logic would that be half full or empty?

Pocari Sweat

So then, lets set the scene.

Barman / barlass behind the counter pouring a pint, and pissed fart with his gob round the glass supping the contents as some poor fecker is trying to fill the glass faster than pisshead supps it, until equilibrium is reached with struggle between barperson versus pisshead?

What universe is this in?

Jackie laughlin

A good question - if only a rhetorical one - Pocari.

A philosopher would drink his beer, while ignoring the bar circus, and philosophise.

Pocari Sweat

Half empty then.

Jackie laughlin

Until emptied and replenished! Philosophising is thirsty work!

renedescartes

What a merry dance you have led us! Your answer in the end was not entirely satisfactory. The glass is a container designed to hold a volumn of 1 pint. It will always hold 1 pint! wether this is comprised of 1/2 pint of beer and 1/4 pint of air and a 1/4 pint of dribbles from Pocari as he has obviously spent a very long time contemplating this. So all answers are wrong! It is as my good friend Socrates said "The senses fool us" To see it as 1/2 full or 1/2 empty, is not seeing things as they are.
Where is this 1/2 pint? If no one is drinking it I may be able to help them out.
Cheers

Tar.Aldarion

Karoma wrote:

The vessel is twice the required size.

Damn, you got there way before me. You're not even an engineer.

po0k

2nd'd

18AD

Pocari Sweat wrote:

So then, lets set the scene.

Barman / barlass behind the counter pouring a pint, and pissed fart with his gob round the glass supping the contents as some poor fecker is trying to fill the glass faster than pisshead supps it, until equilibrium is reached with struggle between barperson versus pisshead?

What universe is this in?

Beer Bong Universe?

Try a hole in the glass at the half way point.

SkepticOne

Pocari Sweat wrote:

Is a one pint beer glass with half a pint of beer in it, half empty or half full?

Hmmm beer....

Jackie laughlin

Renee,
I hope to God, you're too late to claim this half pint. I was worried ages ago that it would be flat if someone didn't drink it. If it's still there, it's in an awful state by now. No true philosopher would have let beer go to waste!

Scigaithris

Beyond amusement, does a metaphor and dichotomy such as this one really contribute to our understanding of anything? Then again, if I had been the one drinking the pint, my view would be very different.