My head hurts

We talked about some interesting ideas today in science. I came out of there utterly confused.


A •----------------------------------------------------------------• B

You can get from A to B, but you can never get from A to B.
Why? Well, when you go from A to B, you always have to go halfway, right?

A •--------------------------------|--------------------------------• B

And from there, you always have to go half way, right?

A •--------------------------------|----------------|----------------• B

And same from there.

A •--------------------------------|----------------|--------|--------• B

And there.

A •--------------------------------|----------------|--------|----|----• B

Again.

A •--------------------------------|----------------|--------|----|--|--• B

And again.

A •--------------------------------|----------------|--------|----|--|-|-• B

And forever on.

Essentially, because you are always going half way there, you are never getting there, because if you keep dividing by two you will never get to zero.

Sort of like fractals, infinitely large shapes that can fit in the palm of your hand. If you keep zooming in, you will keep going forever, because the pattern keeps repeating itself within itself.


Or, for a much easier example:

Or you can just not stop for gas and go the whole way in one sitting

DUN DUN DUUUUNNNNN!!!!!

if you always go halfway to between your destination and your starting point that is the case...


but if you go directly to your destination then you will reach it

x/2 = between 1 and zer


but X/1 = x

dun dun dun

Well, you are only going halfway each time
just go the whole way and you will make it there

What if you take a shotcut through Lakeview?

Also, you look at it the wrong way.

Lets say the distance between A and B is two. Lets let x represent that distance.

Traveling to B from a, you will reach halfway. That is 1/2x.

This is where you are getting it confused. Rather than simply going another 1/2x, which would take you all the way to be, you are saying you are going 1/2x/2, which is going halfway inbetween halfway and B.

But then you're going halfway between there: 1/4x... and so on.

distance for half

X= x/2 meaning that X will always = itself /2


distance for full

X=x/1 meaning x = itself... youve gone full distance

CivBase wrote:
You can get from A to B, but you can never get from A to B.

We'll just stop there, shall we?