Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Miscellany infinity - not exactly a word post
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
OP Take your thumb and your forefinger and spread them apart as far as possible. This represents a distance. Now make that distance one half as large. Continue to cut the distance between them in half.
This is a version of the Zeno paradox!
About Achilles, and the arrow never reaching the target.
It was the root of millennial discussions.
The answer satisfying me is that there is un underlying problem about time: are you making each move in the same time, say a second?In that case, yes, they never touch.
But the model of real motion is such that you are making every step in a time that is half of the previous time.
So now they will touch, and this corresponds to the fact that
1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + ... is equal to 1
The meaning of the infinite sum above is the limit of the partial sums of the first n terms, as n is infinitely growing (same subject as in 0.999....=1 question)
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted infinity - not exactly a word post emanuela 02/02/03 04:49 PM Re: infinity - not exactly a word post musick 02/02/03 06:00 PM Re: infinity - not exactly a word post Faldage 02/02/03 10:56 PM Re: infinity - not exactly a word post Capfka 02/02/03 11:15 PM Re: infinity - not exactly a word post musick 02/03/03 09:22 AM Re: infinity - not exactly a word post milum 02/03/03 03:36 PM Re: infinity - not exactly a word post tsuwm 02/03/03 04:40 PM Re: infinity - not exactly a word post Buffalo Shrdlu 02/03/03 06:49 PM Re: infinity - not exactly a word post emanuela 02/03/03 06:19 AM
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,371Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 1 members (wofahulicodoc), 787 guests, and 1 robot. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 24
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,561tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,919Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org