Home
Archive
Book Reviews
By Others
about
me
|
Monday 23 February
2004
Achilles and Tortoise
The Tortoise challenged Achilles to a race,
claiming that he would win as long as Achilles gave him a small head
start. Achilles laughed at this, for of course he was a mighty warrior and
swift of foot, whereas the Tortoise was heavy and slow.
“How
big a head start do you need?” he asked the Tortoise with a smile.
“Ten
meters,” the latter replied.
Achilles
laughed louder than ever. “You will surely lose, my friend, in that
case,” he told the Tortoise, “but let us race, if you wish it.”
“On
the contrary,” said the Tortoise, “I will win, and I can prove it to
you by a simple argument.”
“Go
on then,” Achilles replied, with less confidence than he felt before. He
knew he was the superior athlete, but he also knew the Tortoise had the
sharper wits, and he had lost many a bewildering argument with him before
this.
“Suppose,”
began the Tortoise, “that you give me a 10-meter head start. Would you
say that you could cover that 10 meters between us very quickly?”
“Very
quickly,” Achilles affirmed.
“And
in that time, how far should I have gone, do you think?”
“Perhaps
a meter – no more,” said Achilles after a moment's thought.
“Very
well,” replied the Tortoise, “so now there is a meter between us. And
you would catch up that distance very quickly?”
“Very
quickly indeed!”
“And
yet, in that time I shall have gone a little way farther, so that now you
must catch that distance up, yes?”
“Ye-es,”
said Achilles slowly.
“And
while you are doing so, I shall have gone a little way farther, so that
you must then catch up the new distance,” the Tortoise continued
smoothly.
Achilles
said nothing.
“And
so you see, in each moment you must be catching up the distance between
us, and yet I – at the same time – will be adding a new distance,
however small, for you to catch up again.”
“Indeed,
it must be so,” said Achilles wearily.
“And
so you can never catch up,” the Tortoise concluded sympathetically.
“You
are right, as always,” said Achilles sadly – and conceded the race.
This article actually is a copied one from the
net, the paradox I found very interesting, so I've included it in my site.
If
you think you'll
like more of/from me ... you can subscribe to my mailing list by sending me a mail
:-)
|