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What is Xeno's Paradox

Xeno's paradox can be most simply explained by imagining Achilles, a powerful athlete, having a race against a tortoise. Let us assume that Achilles can run ten times as fast as the tortoise, and that the tortoise gets 100m headstart.

Now, by the time Achilles covers 100m, the tortoise will have travelled a further 10m. When Achilles travels that 10m, the tortoise will have moved another 1m. And so on and so forth. Achilles will never catch the tortoise, beacuse every time he gets to where his opponent was, the tortoise will have moved a tenth of the distance away.

And that is essentially Zeno's paradox, as we know that in actuality Achilles could easily outrun the tortouise, but the maths doesnt quite add up.

The flaw in the paradox is that it treats time and motion as individual points when in fact they are a continuous flow. In fact, using summation formulae it is possible to work out at exactly what point Achilles would overtake his opponent, thereby winning the race.

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What is Xeno's Paradox

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