rephrase
A 100 metre race has been arranged between Achilles and the
tortoise. Of course Achilles can run much faster than the tortoise,
so Achilles feels pretty confident of an easy victory. He therefore
decides to make the race a little more interesting by giving the
tortoise a 10 metre head start. Most of the spectators are sure
that Achilles can easily make up the 10 metre deficit and they
place bets on Achilles to win. The wise old Zeno, however, decides
to bet on the tortoise. Zeno reasons as follows: The first thing
Achilles must do is to run to the tortoise's starting position. But
while Achilles is doing that, the tortoise, although slow, will
move on to a new position. Next, Achilles must run to the
tortoise's new position, but once again, while Achilles is doing
that, the tortoise will move on a little further and so on and so
on. No matter how small the gap between them is, while Achilles is
closing the gap the tortoise is able to make a new gap. Zeno
concludes that no matter how fast Achilles runs, he can never
catch, let alone pass, the tortoise. Since Achilles can't pass the
tortoise, so long as the tortoise keeps moving, the tortoise will
win the race.
What do think about Zeno's reasoning?
