Zeno's paradox

[BChaps1209]

just got my mind blown figured i'd share:

In the paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. Achilles allows the tortoise a head start of 100 metres, for example. If we suppose that each racer starts running at some constant speed (one very fast and one very slow), then after some finite time, Achilles will have run 100 metres, bringing him to the tortoise's starting point. During this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter distance, say, 10 metres. It will then take Achilles some further time to run that distance, by which time the tortoise will have advanced farther; and then more time still to reach this third point, while the tortoise moves ahead. Thus, whenever Achilles reaches somewhere the tortoise has been, he still has farther to go. Therefore, because there are an infinite number of points Achilles must reach where the tortoise has already been, he can never overtake the tortoise.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno's_paradoxes)

sparknotes: if you're faster than someone and you give them a head start you can never pass them in a race because whenever you catch up they'll have moved a little and so on

 

[Darth.Maul]

This was part of my paper that I just wrote for history of mathematics in ancient greece and egypt.

We also learned about it in calc 2 when starting sequences and series. The point at which Achilles passes the tortoise is at 111.11111111.... because its just a simple sequence where r = 1/10^x

Cool stuff though. Look at Gabriel's horn if you want even more mind blowing shit! Gabriel's horn is a shape that if it were filled with paint, it wouldn't be able to hold enough paint to even paint a small portion of its own surface area.

 

[Parks.]

how? achilles is given a vastly superior velocity than the tortoise so he will eventually passs the turtle.

 

[rzarector]

I actually just wrote a response to a thought experiment for my philosophy class similar to this today. I thought it was retarded.

the thought experiment in a nutshell was that at the end of a school day, everybody walks out of the classroom door. but there are an infinite amount of half-way points to the door, so how do we ever get out of the door?

it's kind of hard to put into words but basically people walk through doors all the fucking time so this is essentialy measuring distance by putting it on a scale of 0 to 1 and implying that the door itself is your destination.

I dunno both of these seem kind of pointless to me. I liked The Ship of Theseus better.

 

[theabortionator]

Wanted to post the picture of the black lady with the turtles having sex but I haven't looked for that picture in forever and couldn't find it.

 

[northeast]

ask a gazelle about this paradox when he's running away from a lion.