Part 11

Chapter 1

           

           Absolutecontinuityofmotionisnotcomprehensibletothehumanmind.Lawsofmotionofanykindbecomecomprehensibletomanonlywhenheexaminesarbitrarilyselectedelementsofthatmotion;butatthesametime,alargeproportionofhumanerrorcomesfromthearbitrarydivisionofcontinuousmotionintodiscontinuouselements.Thereisawell-known,so-calledsophismoftheancientsconsistinginthis,thatAchillescouldnevercatchupwithatortoisehewasfollowing,inspiteofthefactthathetraveledtentimesasfastasthetortoise.BythetimeAchilleshascoveredthedistancethatseparatedhimfromthetortoise,thetortoisehascoveredonetenthofthatdistanceaheadofhim:whenAchilleshascoveredthattenth,thetortoisehascoveredanotheronehundredth,andsoonforever.Thisproblemseemedtotheancientsinsoluble.Theabsurdanswer(thatAchillescouldneverovertakethetortoise)resultedfromthis:thatmotionwasarbitrarilydividedintodiscontinuouselements,whereasthemotionbothofAchillesandofthetortoisewascontinuous.

           Byadoptingsmallerandsmallerelementsofmotionweonlyapproachasolutionoftheproblem,butneverreachit.Onlywhenwehaveadmittedtheconceptionoftheinfinitelysmall,andtheresultinggeometricalprogressionwithacommonratioofonetenth,andhavefoundthesumofthisprogressiontoinfinity,dowereachasolutionoftheproblem.

           Amodernbranchofmathematicshavingachievedtheartofdealingwiththeinfinitelysmallcannowyieldsolutionsinothermorecomplexproblemsofmotionwhichusedtoappearinsoluble.

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