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

(In reply to It Can't by Matthew Bobbins)

I agree with Matthew in that it can't be. First of all, it was stated that the tortoise is much slower than the swift Achilles. Well, if he's slower, there is so way that just because he had a head start he would always be able to keep the same distance between himself and Achilles.

Posted by michelle on 2003-11-11 18:30:42