the.com/impossibility
The universe's polite way of saying no without explaining why.
means Something that cannot happen or exist, no matter how hard you try or wish otherwise.
from Built from the Latin prefix 'in-' (not) plus 'possibilis' (able to be done), itself from 'posse' — to be able, to have power. The same 'posse' gives us 'possible,' 'potent,' and 'power,' so an impossibility is literally a thing stripped of its power to happen, arriving in English via French in the medieval period.
- math proofs
- some impossibilities are proven, not just unattempted
- squaring circle
- proven impossible with compass and straightedge in 1882
- perpetual motion
- forbidden by thermodynamics, not lack of trying
- goedel's insight
- some truths are provably unprovable within their own system