Suppose that the swift Achilles is having a race with a tortoise. Since the tortoise is much slower, she gets a head start. When the tortoise has reached a given point a, Achilles starts. But by the time Achilles reaches a, the tortoise has already moved beyond point a, to point b. And by the time Achilles reaches b the tortoise has already moved a little bit farther along, to point c. Since this process goes on indefinitely, Achilles can never catch up with the tortoise.

How can this be?

Taken from - http://members.aol.com/kiekeben/zeno.html

the lengths of the segments between the points would just have to keep getting smaller.  Or possibly, between two of the points Achilles stepped on a sharp rock.  (the sharp point hit his heel and killed him)

Posted by Jen on 2005-07-11 19:05:17