Amanda is enrolled in a calculus course. In order to brush up and be of occasional use to her, I've pulled from the shelf Martin Gardner's update of Silvanus Thompson's Calculus Made Easy. I laughed out loud this morning when, reading along in chapter two, on limits, Gardner elucidates with a joke Zeno's paradox. You know Zeno's paradox. To complete a race, the runner must first get half way to the finish line, then must cover half of the remaining distance, and then half of that, and on and on. . . he can't ever make it to the finish, because it is guarded by an infinite number of "half ways." The elucidation concerns a teacher who, to make the paradox vivid, told the prettiest girl in class to stand against one wall and one of the boys against the opposite wall. The boy then advances across the room till he is half way to the girl. After a pause, he advances again, covering half the remaining distance. After another couple advances, the girl teases, "You'll never get here!"
"True," answers the boy, "but I'll get close enough for all practical purposes."
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