How can an object (say, car) accelerate from some velocity to another if there is an infinite number of velocities it has to attain first?

878 viewsMathematicsOther

E.g. how can the car accelerate from rest to 5m/s if it first has to be going at 10^(-100) m/s which in turn requires it to have gone through 10^(-1000) m/s, etc.? That is, if a car is going at a speed of 5m/s, doesn’t that mean the magnitude of its speed has gone through all numbers in the interval [0,5], meaning it’s gone through all the numbers in [0,10^(-100000) ], etc.? How can it do that in a finite amount of time?

In: Mathematics

11 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

>That is, if a car is going at a speed of 5m/s, doesn’t that mean the magnitude of its speed has gone through all numbers in the interval [0,5], meaning it’s gone through all the numbers in [0,10-100000 ], etc.?

Kinda, yes, it did. If you could stop time and divide it as you wish, watch it accelerate frame by frame.

>How can it do that in a finite amount of time?

What do you mean ?

Imagine a slower interval of time if it helps you. Take a tree that grows 1 meter in a year, measure it every 0,1 second that passes for a year. You would have a pretty detailed graphic of it’s growth speed.

Why does something similar at higher speed bother you ?

You are viewing 1 out of 11 answers, click here to view all answers.