Is Motion Impossible?

[~AK49~]

Wait, am I in the weed appreciation thread and don't realize it?

[THE REED]

[Tay Roc]

I can't go "all the way" into my hand without coming out the other end... my hand is only 9 inches long.

That's a mathematical impossibility.

I respect your stalking game, that's it.

[walrusthewill]

infinitesimal calculus

This is the correct answer, the question you are asking was originally posed be Parmenides and his follower Zeno - who also did such fun puzzles as the picture of the arrow and the tortoise and Achilles.

They didn't have the math back then to solve these problems, but modern (about 18th century) calculus can

[VirusTI]

This is the correct answer, the question you are asking was originally posed be Parmenides and his follower Zeno - who also did such fun puzzles as the picture of the arrow and the tortoise and Achilles.

They didn't have the math back then to solve these problems, but modern (about 18th century) calculus can

I think it is more than just a math problem. It's a metaphysical problem. Remember that Zeno was part of the "all is one" school, vs Heraclitus which believe that "all is changing." Plato was big on the Zeno train of thought.

I think the paradox is still valid. the question still remains. Is all changing, or is all one? This also raises epidemiological concerns. Plato would say due to the "oneness" nature of existence, all of knowledge is already in us, and we cannot "know" anything new, we just have to recollect: "How can we find something we do not know?" vs the Heraclitus school were everything is in motion and changing. Knowledge is very difficult to attain with constant changing, think "you never step into the same river twice."

[Frogs!]

there will be a point where the remaining distance could be considered 'ballpark'.

if it isn't already.

[walrusthewill]

I think it is more than just a math problem. It's a metaphysical problem. Remember that Zeno was part of the "all is one" school, vs Heraclitus which believe that "all is changing." Plato was big on the Zeno train of thought.

I think the paradox is still valid. the question still remains. Is all changing, or is all one? This also raises epidemiological concerns. Plato would say due to the "oneness" nature of existence, all of knowledge is already in us, and we cannot "know" anything new, we just have to recollect: "How can we find something we do not know?" vs the Heraclitus school were everything is in motion and changing. Knowledge is very difficult to attain with constant changing, think "you never step into the same river twice."

Youre absolutely right about change in general, but the immediate question was about motion via diminishing subsets of distance, which is answered by calculus

The question of change as a whole isnt directly challenged by this particular paradox, something like the statue and the clay or the man and his left hand does that

[Danny Gunz]

Zeno's paradox I dont know a whole lot about it but he proposes that all motion is an illusion. One must complete an infinite amount of tasks to move because the distance is infinitely divisible making it impossible.


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

[atomicsad]

Do you mean, "Is Mission Impossible?"

[kadyo's]

If in a journey, you must first walk half the distance and then half the distance of the remaining distance and so on, how will you ever reach the end?

For example, if you want to walk 10 feet, you must first walk half the distance (5 feet), and then you must first walk half the remaining distance (2.5 feet) and then half of that (1.25 feet) and so on, how will you ever make it the entire 10 feet?

This is called the paradox of Zeno which he resolved almost 1 600 years ago.

So, if he walks just half the distance each time then he'd travel

10/2 + 10/4 + 10/8 + .... ad infinitum but infinite geometric series tells us that the sum of this sequence is

5/(1-1/2) = 10. So yes, he'd cover the distance of 10 ft.