Zeno S Paradoxes

The epic tale of an ancient, unsolved puzzle and how it relates to all scientific attempts to explain the basic structure of the universe At the dawn of science the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno formulated his paradox of motion, and amazingly, it is still on the cutting edge of all investigations into the fabric of reality. Zeno used logic to argue that motion is impossible, and at the heart of his maddening puzzle is the nature of space and time. Is space-time continuous or broken up like a string of beads? Over the past two millennia, many of our greatest minds—including Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and other current theoreticians—have been gripped by the mystery this puzzle represents. Joseph Mazur, acclaimed author of Euclid in the Rainforest, shows how historic breakthroughs in our understanding of motion shed light on Zeno’s paradox. The orbits of the planets were explained, the laws of motion were revealed, the theory of relativity was discovered—but the basic structure of time and space remained elusive. In the tradition of Fermat’s Enigma and Zero, The Motion Paradox is a lively history of this apparently simple puzzle whose solution—if indeed it can be solved—will reveal nothing less than the fundamental nature of reality.

The fascinating story of an ancient riddle and what it reveals about the nature of time and space Three millennia ago, the Greek philosopher Zeno constructed a series of logical paradoxes to prove that motion is impossible. Today, these paradoxes remain on the cutting edge of our investigations into the fabric of space and time. Zeno's Paradox uses the motion paradox as a jumping-off point for an exploration of the twenty-five-hundred-year quest to uncover the true nature of the universe. From Galileo to Einstein to Stephen Hawking, some of the greatest minds in history have tackled the problem and made spectacular breakthroughs, but through it all, the paradox of motion remains.

A reprint of the Bobbs-Merrill edition of 1970. These essays lead the reader through the land of the wonderful shrinking genie to the warehouse where the infinity machines are kept. By careful examination of a lamp that is switched on and off infinitely many times, or the workings of a machine that prints out an infinite decimal expansion of pi, we begin to understand how it is possible for Achilles to overtake the tortoise. The concepts that form the basis of modern science---space, time, motion, change, infinity---are examined and explored in this edition. Includes an updated bibliography.

When a tortoise challenges a great Greek hero to use his logic in order to decipher a simple philosophical argument, slight chaos ensues. ‘What the Tortoise Said to Achilles’ is an endless cycle of suppositions and deductions. A refined piece of philosophical writing, Caroll’s discussion was one of the first steps towards paradoxically explaining logical truth. His clever prose makes this novel an essential read for budding philosophers and logic aficionados. Lewis Caroll (1832-1898) was a British author. He was famed for his novel ‘Alice in Wonderland' and its sequel ‘Through the Looking-Glass’. Both of which have been successfully adapted to film and stage. Aside from this, he was also a mathematician, professional photographer, and clergyman. His colorful plotlines, powerful imagery, and endless imagination earned him the title of one of the most notable authors of the nineteenth century. Among his other notable works are the poetic collection "Phantasmagoria and Other Poems", the poem "The Hunting of the Snark", and the fairy novel "Sylvie and Bruno".

Of all Plato’s dialogues, the Parmenides is notoriously the most difficult to interpret. Scholars of all periods have disagreed about its aims and subject matter. The interpretations have ranged from reading the dialogue as an introduction to the whole of Platonic metaphysics to seeing it as a collection of sophisticated tricks, or even as an elaborate joke. This work presents an illuminating new translation of the dialogue together with an extensive introduction and running commentary, giving a unified explanation of the Parmenides and integrating it firmly within the context of Plato's metaphysics and methodology. Scolnicov shows that in the Parmenides Plato addresses the most serious challenge to his own philosophy: the monism of Parmenides and the Eleatics. In addition to providing a serious rebuttal to Parmenides, Plato here re-formulates his own theory of forms and participation, arguments that are central to the whole of Platonic thought, and provides these concepts with a rigorous logical and philosophical foundation. In Scolnicov's analysis, the Parmenides emerges as an extension of ideas from Plato's middle dialogues and as an opening to the later dialogues. Scolnicov’s analysis is crisp and lucid, offering a persuasive approach to a complicated dialogue. This translation follows the Greek closely, and the commentary affords the Greekless reader a clear understanding of how Scolnicov’s interpretation emerges from the text. This volume will provide a valuable introduction and framework for understanding a dialogue that continues to generate lively discussion today.

In the 5th century BC Zeno of Elea propounded four arguments about motion leading to paradoxical propositions: that a finite distance cannot be traversed by a moving object, that a faster runner cannot overtake a slower one. that an arrow flight is at rest, that half a given time is equal to the whole. These paradoxes were intended as support for the doctrine of Parmenides that all apparent motion is illusory, and of the attempts that have been made to show wherein they are fallacious none has met with universal acceptance. In this work solutions are suggested for the first three paradoxes. There is an exposition of the atomic theory of space and time which has been thought to underlie the fourth, and attempts which some commentators have made to explain the fourth on that basis are examined.

'This sentence is false'. Is it? If a hotel with an infinite number of rooms is fully occupied, can it still accommodate a new guest? How can we have emotional responses to fiction, when we know that the objects of our emotions do not exist?

This book explores the birth of the scientific understanding of motion in early Greek thought up to Aristotle.