[ot] Tortoise fables (was: Re: [plug] dlink dsl-300)

[Cameron Patrick]

On Thu, Dec 04, 2003 at 03:16:15PM +0800, James Devenish wrote:
| In message <20031204070720.GI1551 at erdos.home>
| on Thu, Dec 04, 2003 at 03:07:20PM +0800, Cameron Patrick wrote:
| > I think I prefer Zeno's Tortoise and Achilles paradox.
| 
| You're just making that up*!
[...]
| * <glances around> Right?

Not at all.  Google for "zeno tortoise achilles" - the first hit is:

http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/prime/articles/zeno_tort/index.asp

It's also mentioned Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher, Bach", which is interesting
(although at times heavy-going) reading.

| > (For those who havne't heard of it:  Achilles and the Tortoise have a
| > race; Achilles gives the Tortoise a short head-start 'cos he's so much
| > slower than Achilles.  In the time it takes Achilles to reach the
| > Tortoise's old position, the Tortoise is always slightly further on.  So
| > no matter how much faster Achilles may be, he can never catch up to the
| > Tortoise.)
| 
| Unfortunately for the bookmakers, the tortoise has similar problems
| moving from his old position to his new one.

Exactly. :-)  Not to mention that the whole thing starts to look a bit
dodgy and pointless when you think in terms of limits and calculus.

Cameron.