For human beings to fly without the help of any device is impossible: it is not possible.
Impossible is that which is not possible or that is very difficult to fulfill . To understand the notion of impossible, which has its origin in the Latin word impossibilis , it is necessary to know the definition of possible .
The possible is what can be, happen or exist . The concept is associated with what is real or credible : it is possible that a dog barks at night or that it will rain tomorrow on a Caribbean island. The impossible, on the other hand, has no chance of becoming reality or, at least, it is more than difficult. Thus it can be said that it is impossible for a cat to bark or for it to snow tomorrow on a Caribbean island.
The impossible and reality
What is impossible can change over time . In prehistory , it was impossible to think of a human being flying, something that became possible with the invention of the airplane. Today it is impossible to think that people can travel in time but, perhaps, in the future this action will be achieved through some technological innovation.
Sometimes, the impossible is associated with known conditions or existing evidence . Thus, some may affirm that it is impossible for the Yeti to exist although, in reality, for others there could be the possibility that a similar creature inhabits lands unexplored by man . In this way an opposition is produced between the impossible (there is no possibility that the Yeti exists) and the possible (there is minimal probability that said being lives on Earth and has not yet been found).
In colloquial language, the adjective impossible is used to name something that is difficult to achieve : “Cristiano Ronaldo scored an impossible goal by eluding five rivals and kicking the goal from a very uncomfortable position” , “The Canadian runner won an impossible race: “He started in the last position and managed to overtake a competitor every two laps.”
Some improbable questions are often mentioned as impossible; That happens when referring to the existence of the Yeti, for example.
Analyzing the concept
The terms impossible and improbable, as well as their opposites, possible and probability , are often confused. However, if we refer to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, their meanings are sufficiently different: impossible is a situation that has no power or means to happen or become; improbable, on the other hand, is an implausible thing that has no basis in prudent reason.
In other words, something improbable can happen, although a rational analysis cannot guarantee it or suggests that we should not expect it to happen. This concept can be applied to various cases, from sporting matches to the sale of a property, including job search: "My favorite team is unlikely to win, but I don't lose hope," "Given the economic situation, it is unlikely that this house is sold" , "With this resume it is very unlikely that they will give me the position" .
For the situations just described to be considered impossible, there would have to be force majeure factors that prevented their success by all means: that the team was prohibited from playing, that the house had been left in ruins due to an earthquake and that the person The person applying for the job has a significant criminal history and knows that the company will find this information before making its decision.
As mentioned in previous paragraphs, the limits of the possible and, therefore, of the impossible are often given by historical and cultural issues, which is why they are not considered rigid. Just as the technological advances of the last three decades have given us communication devices and networks that seemed impossible half a century ago, changes have also been achieved at an ideological and cultural level that many believed were unattainable, although in these cases the growth is much slower. .