what's the opposite of fire; ice or no fire?

Question

or what's the opposite of floor?
is it ceiling, or no floor?

those might be a bad examples so
basically what i'm asking is whether the opposite of an object is the thing that is completely different from that object or is the opposite of an object nothing at all?

Answer 1

completely different, you know... like opposites attract, not you attract to nothing at all

Answer 2

Opposite is derived form the word 'oppose'



It doesn't REALLY mean ZERO or NOTHING....



... rather physically or figuratively the force that would push you back the way you came.



Mathamatically the opposite of 1 is minus 1, not zero.



"For every action there is an equal & opposite reaction"

Means a COUNTER force, NOT a force of zero.



Now this gets a little more complicated when applied multifacited things like feelings or politics, but in general if you eveluate a single characteristic of a thing - it's opposite is a characteristic in something else that resists or reverses the original phenomina.



So Fire is the opposite of Ice - at least in the sense of providing warmth.



Now everyone would understand if you said the opposite of Rich is Broke, or the opposite of Noise is Silence.



But TECHNECALLY the opposite of great Wealth is great Debt & the opposite of Noise (unpleasent sound) is Music (pleasent sound)



Make sense? .



Your Political Opposition are those who fight AGAINST your goals, not those who have no opinion.



The opposite of winning is losing NOT avoiding the challange alttogether.

Answer 3

The closest thing to the opposite of fire is photosynthesis, which can turn the carbon back into organic matter which can later burn again.

In the case of opposite states, you're talking about a relative change back to the original state. If you go up, you must go down. If you turn a light on, you must turn it off. If you boil something, you must condense, if you freeze it then you must melt. If you take three steps forward then two steps left, you take two steps right then three backward.

There are different types of opposites though which I haven't covered.

Answer 4

truly the opposite of anything is not the antithesis of it or any sort of contrast but the absence of that thing. Hence the opposite of warm is cold. Cold represents an absence of an amount of warmth. So yes the opposite of any object is the absence of that object. The opposite of cat isn't dog, it's the absence of a cat. Really, the idea of elementary opposites stems from primitive notions of the world dating as far back as ancient Greece, where they believed the entire world was made up of fire, water, ice and earth. We just don't care to analyze them. But look at it this way. Fire is made up of heat energy and light, while ice is an actual substance, Frozen Water. Anything can catch fire but nothing can "catch ice". See, you just pay some attention and the idea of these things being opposites seems absurd.



edit: I would say the opposite of up IS down. Down is a word to represent the absence of upward direction. The opposite of going nowhere is having any movement at all. The reason another direction, say east, isn't the opposite of up then is because one could go east and upward at once but never downward and upward at once.



this might help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_opposition

Answer 5

I don't think there's an "opposite" with this example. It's like asking what is the opposite of television, and you know that radio is not. If you had asked, however, what is the opposite of heat (fire) then it would be cold (ice).

Answer 6

The opposite of anything is what you self think it may be.



I could say that the opposite of right is "thgir" cus in my mind I have the concept of language. Someone else thinking rationally whould say, the opposite is left. Finally you say no it is going nowhere. So tell me who is right?

Answer 7

Using your example, the opposite of fire is ice. Fire is hot, and ice is cold, meaning the opposite of hot isnt nothing, its cold. I hope this makes sense!

Answer 8

Objects don't have opposites. Energy does!

Answer 9

not everything has an opposite. That's simply a human label

Answer 10

the concept of things being 'opposite' is a construct of the human mind and has no basis in reality.

Answer 11

Wierd question you're asking. The oposite of fire to me is not ice. The oposite of the heat of the fire could be the cold head of the ice. I think the oposite of fire is no fire.

Answer 12

the opposite of something is something that contradicts it. The opposite of life is death, not no life. by adding no in front of what you claim to be the opposite of something you are merely stating it seizes to exist.

Answer 13

The thing that is completely different. Nothing is somewhere in the middle of the two.

Answer 14

i drink juice from my fully empty cup full of orange and it is now half empty, is it now half empty or half full, or both perhaps. The opposite of fire is water.

Answer 15

the opposite of fire is unfire

Answer 16

we are one but not the same

you need to balance the difference and the sameness.