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Never understood the whole "if you slice by half, you'll never reach zero".

oiprocs

oiprocs

Diamond Member
Assume you're 10 feet from the wall, and you keep getting closer by half the distance. 5, 2.5, 1.25, yadda yadda.

It's pretty dumb to think that you'll NEVER reach the wall, only some infinitesimally small number.

It's no fucking secret that you will hit the wall, whether you like it or not.

Bottom line:

mathematicians can suck it with their "logic";
engineers actually apply common sense to their theories.
 
Originally posted by: scorpious
Assume you're 10 feet from the wall, and you keep getting closer by half the distance. 5, 2.5, 1.25, yadda yadda.

It's pretty dumb to think that you'll NEVER reach the wall, only some infinitesimally small number.

It's no fucking secret that you will hit the wall, whether you like it or not.

Bottom line:

mathematicians can suck it with their "logic";
engineers actually apply common sense to their theories.
Click to expand...

Are you an engineer? Because I'm an engineer and I was actually taught math as part of my degree.
 
Originally posted by: scorpious

mathematicians can suck it with their "logic";
engineers actually apply common sense to their theories.
Click to expand...

engineers are no better. contractors are the ones that have to make the stupid thing actually work, and will tell you in prebid at what point your belt buckle will hit said wall. the theory/ logic/ concept is correct tho, assuming you are phase blade thin.
 
It depends on how "logical" you want to be. If you think about this on a micro-level, then you will never actually touch the wall. The distance that you come towards the wall can never be 0 since you are only dividing by half, so the molecules of your body will never be close enough to make physical contact with the molecules of the wall.

 
It IS pretty dumb to think that you'll never reach the wall.

It is even dumber to think that mathematicians actually believe this.

It is dumber still to not realize the whole situation is a rigged set-up designed to show that common and "obvious" assumptions can lead to false conclusions.
 
You will only reach the wall because you are not a point. You have volume and take up space. But if you measure from a point on the tip of your foot and had the ability to move extremely minute distances that point on the tip of your foot would never come in contact with the wall.
 
Originally posted by: elmer92413
You will only reach the wall because you are not a point. You have volume and take up space. But if you measure from a point on the tip of your foot and had the ability to move extremely minute distances that point on the tip of your foot would never come in contact with the wall.
Click to expand...

False, that presumes that movement can be done in sub-plank length increments. Since it can't the number of divisions is not infinite but finite.
 
Originally posted by: QED
It IS pretty dumb to think that you'll never reach the wall.

It is even dumber to think that mathematicians actually believe this.

It is dumber still to not realize the whole situation is a rigged set-up designed to show that common and "obvious" assumptions can lead to false conclusions.
Click to expand...

only reason you will eventually reach it is you are not a point (as elmer put it).

its like the .9999=1 eventually yeah you just have to call it. but the OP's logic fails on the idea.
 
Originally posted by: QED
It IS pretty dumb to think that you'll never reach the wall.
Click to expand...

No it's not, but all of you are using different definitions of "reach the wall". Will you get close enough to touch it? Of course. Will you eliminate all distance between you and the wall such that x (your distance from 0) - y (the wall's distance from 0) = 0? Absolutely not.

 
Mathematician: A wall is 20 feet away. Let's say in 1 second, you move 10 feet. So in the next half second, you move 5 feet. Then in a quarter second you move another 2.5 feet, and so on and you never reach the wall because you keep cutting the distance in half.

Me: No you idiot. In 1 second, you move 10 feet. In the next one second, you move the other 10 feet and hit the wall. The end.
 
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