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Zeno's Paradox

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Posted by RFL on September 9, 1998 16:56:11 UTC

What you are basically asking about is Zeno's paradox. e.g.

Achilles is racing against a tortoise. Achilles can run 10 meters per second, the tortoise only 5 meter per second. The track is 100 meters long. Achilles, being a fair sportsman, gives the tortoise 10 meter advantage. Who will win ?

Of course, Achilles will finish the race after 10 seconds, while the tortoise needs 18 seconds to finish, and Achilles will clearly win.

The problem with Zeno's paradox is that Zeno was uncomfortable with adding infinitely many numbers. In fact, his basic argument was: if you add infinitely many numbers, then - no matter what those numbers are - you must get infinity. If that was true, it would take Achilles infinitely long to reach the tortoise, and he would loose the race. However, reducing the infinite addition to the limit of a sequence, we have seen that this argument is false.

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