Are we there yet???
Less riddle, more paradox:
To go from point "A" to point "B," one must first go half way. When at the half-way mark, there is now a new point "A." To travel to point "B" takes another trip first to the half-way mark. Since this is and will forever be a renewing course of events, how can point "B" ever be reached?
In the same area of thought; If you break a rock in half, what is left? A half-rock? No, of course not. There is no such thing. You have two rocks. Break one of them in half, and yet another smaller rock. Half again, and again, and again......Is this infinity? Physics will wind you up at molocules and atoms. Religion; God. Others will say you will find things called "Super Strings." Steven King and others say galaxies within galaxies.
I think........well, who cares what I think.
What do YOU think?
To go from point "A" to point "B," one must first go half way. When at the half-way mark, there is now a new point "A." To travel to point "B" takes another trip first to the half-way mark. Since this is and will forever be a renewing course of events, how can point "B" ever be reached?
In the same area of thought; If you break a rock in half, what is left? A half-rock? No, of course not. There is no such thing. You have two rocks. Break one of them in half, and yet another smaller rock. Half again, and again, and again......Is this infinity? Physics will wind you up at molocules and atoms. Religion; God. Others will say you will find things called "Super Strings." Steven King and others say galaxies within galaxies.
I think........well, who cares what I think.
What do YOU think?
Labels: funphysics
posted by Mr Fahrenheit at
1:19 AM
12 Comments:
Basic physics lesson, what was the point?
For the first question, as the distance travelled gets halve, so too does the time it takes to travel that distance. If it takes x time to travel from point A to the midpoint, then it will take 0.5x to travel to the new midpoint, then 0.25x, then 0.125x, and so on. However, if you take the limit as the number of times you travel to the midpoint approaches infinity, you will find that it takes 2x to travel from the original point A to point B.
For the second question, a rock will continue to be a rock when broken in half over and over again until it reaches the atomic level, when it will no longer be a rock and instead be different atoms.
interesting notion, if you keep halving infinity you would eventually reach the other side of infinity...
If stopping at every half point does not make any difference while the distance going down to zero, you will eventually reach the zero point which is point B, you might as well just draw a straight line and go straight without stopping at all, you will pass all of the mid points and still reach point B in 2x time. So I say you can.
RD
How can you reach point "B"? Don't stop at all! You won't create another point "A" and so you would get to your destination without reaching infinity, like you so wish to believe.
Splitting a rock in half would still give you rocks until you got to the atomic level. Science proves it, so it's not infinity. Steven King is an author, not a sorce for facts. And how would religion find God to blame when cracking rocks in half? I'm cracking a rock... OH NO! There's another rock..... It must be God! That's stupid.
BTW... What was the point of this stupid thing? I thought it was so dumb, I just had to put this comment up.
Well, well......To the sphincter who posted last.....I never said anything about stopping at the half-way mark, I only said you must first reach it, which is indisputable. Since reality breaks down to the atomic level (until we invent a more powerful microscope), and we all know that atoms never touch, that would mean that, in actuality, point B can never be reached. "But how can I go from my house(A) to the store(B)?" he asks. I am thinking a little out of the box, so maybe try stepping out here with me. Or not.............
By the way, I know King is an author, That's why I didn't credit him with anything other than opinion. Also, some people find God in everything and think of the things in our world as proof of his grand design. (And who said "blame"?)
If what i'm saying goes... say u're standing at point A and point B is 5km away from you, if u move point A another 5km back from point B, then if u travel half the distance u'll get to point B but wouldn't of started at A...
Don't have nething to say about the second part.
But at what point do you no longer have rocks, but instead pebbles? And when do the pebbles become sand?
Eventually B becomes A, but It's true, atoms never touch. Even though what we believe comes into contact, scietifically.. nothing ever touches.
Even by halving, you will eventually get from point A to point B with infinity ammount of point A's.
-Rocks I'm not bothered to get into, it was an example so I don't need to explain.
-God.. I have no belief, I do not question, and I do not answer. I have full respect to those who believe in a/the God, but otherwise I'd hope for respect back for my own decision.
~cassieadam01~
for the fist part Create a new point C 2 times further away than b and try to travel there and you will reach point b in one turn
For The second part rocks are only by definition "rock" if you halve rocks to a certain point it will become by efinition "sand" and so on till molecules and atoms, So its only mans definitions, and "common sence" that holds us back.
Wasn't it only common sence to think the world is flat?
you said its more of a paradox so i give a mathematical answer
the sum of all that you have walked or broken in a rock would be
x = 1/2 /(1-1/2)
x = 1/2 / 1/2
x = 1
1 means its the whole thing.
this is using infinite series.
Umm... wow... I'm new, nd i didn't think people could be so smart. My head hurs. Good job!
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