For those of you who aren’t familiar: Achilles and a Tortoise race, however the tortoise is given a leading start. Achilles is at Point A, whereas the tortoise is ahead at point B. The race begins, and by the time Achilles makes it to point B, where the Tortoise used to be, it has reached point C. Then Achilles arrives at point C with the Tortoise at point D. So on and so forth, with Achilles never catching up to the Tortoise as per the paradox.
But he definitely catches the Tortoise eventually, right? The tortoise has a lower velocity, hence the head start, so after a certain amount of time the distance between points is smaller than Achilles and the Tortoise’s difference in speed. What, if anything, is paradoxical about the world’s most famous paradox?
In: 9
Achilles definitely catches the tortoise.
The way the story is told, they keep describing snapshots in time that are closer and closer to the time the tortoise is caught without telling you about that moment.
Like if he catches him at noon and you tell a story describing 11:59, then 11:59:30, then 11:59:45, then 11:59:52.5, etc.
You can certainly tell a story like that where you never get to noon. But we all know how time works. Eventually noon will come.
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