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

This is not really a paradox, unless you think of it purely mathematically.

Common sense tells you that Achilles was perfectly capable of overtaking a tortoise and that it is possible to reach the end of a course.

Posted by Adam on 2003-03-03 08:50:18