Sunday, January 9, 2011

The MotionalLess Runner A paradox

Came across one great mathematician Zeno  paradox which was really interesting This is how it is explained

This runner is clearly disappointed that 
he won't be going anywhere


Paradox 1: The Motionless Runner
A runner wants to run a certain distance - let us say 100 meters - in a finite time. But to reach the 100-meter mark, the runner must first reach the 50-meter mark, and to reach that, the runner must first run 25 meters. But to do that, he or she must first run 12.5 meters.
Since space is infinitely divisible, we can repeat these 'requirements' forever. Thus the runner has to reach an infinite number of 'midpoints' in a finite time. This is impossible, so the runner can never reach his goal. In general, anyone who wants to move from one point to another must meet these requirements, and so motion is impossible, and what we perceive as motion is merely an illusion


 

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