- #36
Studiot
- 5,440
- 9
Hello, Steve,
There is actually slightly more to Zeno than can just be dismissed with a wave of a paw.
Not all infinite series have a finite total.
[tex]1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6... \to \infty [/tex]
However take "the arrow can never reach its target because before it can travel the whole distance it must travel half the distance. Before it can travel the remaining half it must travel half of that and so on."
Here the series does sum to a finite total
[tex]\frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{8} + \frac{1}{{16}} + \frac{1}{{32}}... \to 1[/tex]
So we have to take care with infinite series.
There is actually slightly more to Zeno than can just be dismissed with a wave of a paw.
Not all infinite series have a finite total.
[tex]1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6... \to \infty [/tex]
However take "the arrow can never reach its target because before it can travel the whole distance it must travel half the distance. Before it can travel the remaining half it must travel half of that and so on."
Here the series does sum to a finite total
[tex]\frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{8} + \frac{1}{{16}} + \frac{1}{{32}}... \to 1[/tex]
So we have to take care with infinite series.