Achilles and the Tortoise

Among the many paradoxes given by ancient Greek philosopher Zeno (of Elea; 490-425BC) is the story of Achilles and the tortoise. According to this story, Achilles and a tortoise decided to have a race. Achilles gave the tortoise a headstart since he could run twice as fast as the tortoise. Zeno argued that by the time Achilles reaches the tortoise's starting point, the tortoise would have moved by half the distance of the headstart given it. Next, by the time Achilles reaches that point, the tortoise would have moved further by half the distance that was between them previously, and so on and so forth. Therefore, it appears that Achilles would never catch up with the tortoise. But surely this cannot be right. Achilles being twice as swift as the tortoise must eventually win the race. But is this always so? It was said that Gilbert Ryle, one of the well-known philosophers of the 20th century, wrote of this about the parable: "In many ways it deserves to rank as the paradigm of a philosophical puzzle". Professor Bryan Magee, author of the 1998 book entitled The Story of Philosophy , so elegantly asserts the great challenge: "Perhaps one day it will be solved, as someone has recently solved the problem of Fermat's Last Theorem". Will you have a go at it?

This exercise was written as a basis for class discussion. It illustrates neither the effective nor ineffective management of the given situation. Data provided may be entirely hypothetical.

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Achilles and the Tortoise

Achilles Speed Time Meeting Point Tortoise

Time

Achilles

Tortoise

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Achilles and the Tortoise

Achilles Speed Tortoise

Copyright Leong Thin Yin, 2005. All Rights Reserved.

2
Time

1
Point

Meeting

100 Achilles 0.00 100.00 150.00 175.00 187.50 193.75 196.88 198.44 199.22 199.61 199.80 199.90 199.95 199.98 199.99 199.99 200.00 220.00 240.00 260.00 280.00 300.00 320.00 340.00 360.00 380.00 400.00 420.00 440.00 460.00 480.00 500.00 520.00 540.00

200 Tortoise 100.00 150.00 175.00 187.50 193.75 196.88 198.44 199.22 199.61 199.80 199.90 199.95 199.98 199.99 199.99 200.00 200.00 210.00 220.00 230.00 240.00 250.00 260.00 270.00 280.00 290.00 300.00 310.00 320.00 330.00 340.00 350.00 360.00 370.00

Time 0.00 50.00 75.00 87.50 93.75 96.88 98.44 99.22 99.61 99.80 99.90 99.95 99.98 99.99 99.99 100.00 100.00 110.00 120.00 130.00 140.00 150.00 160.00 170.00 180.00 190.00 200.00 210.00 220.00 230.00 240.00 250.00 260.00 270.00

Here lies the solution: The tortoise continues to stay in the lead, with the lead between them halved each time that Achilles reaches the last point the tortoise was at. But as the lead gets shorter and shorter, given enough time they eventually meet. If the race is to continue past that meeting point, Achilles will move on ahead, opening up the distance between them because of his superior speed. At last, Achilles, as common sense dictates, wins the race. QED.

600 500 400

Distance

300
200
Achilles

100 0 0 50 100 150 200

Tortoise Meeting point

250

300

Time

Documentation Achilles' speed C4 <Input> Tortoise's speed D4 <Input> Tortoise's head start D10 <Input> Meeting time C7 Meeting point D7 =D10/(C4-D4) =C7*C4

A time point B11 =C11/C$4 Achilles's position C11 =D10 Tortoise's position D11 =D10+(B11-B10)*D$4

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005. All Rights Reserved.

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