Ok, here's another brain teaser; If everything has a half life, then how does anything ever get anywhere? If the distance from me to a bastket is 16m and i throw the ball, the half life is 8m, then 4m, then 2m, then 1m, then .5m, then .25m, etc. If this can be divided down, infinately, as even the smallest number will have a half life, how does the ball ever get to the bastket? Same with walking, 10 miles, 5 miles, 2.5 miles, 1.75 mile, etc. HOW DOES ANYTHING GET ANYWHERE?
i think half life is some shit like carbon dating, or checking some chemicals for how long they have been there, idk but what your talking about is you go microscopic and keep going half the distance of what you just went, you will never reach your spot
If you think that's a clever paradox, how about this one: If the human body is made of atoms, and atoms are over 99.9% empty space (with electrons appearing at will), how can you ever touch something like a wall? The paradox you described is resolvable in a scientific context. But how about this paradox: How do molecules turn into thoughts about molecules?
I saw something on Nat-Geo or Discovery about the empty space one. I believe they said that we never actually touch anything, but rather the charges of electrons (-) on every atom repel each other. That repulsion (sp?) is what allows us to perceive contact with other objects.
Doesn't half life means how long it takes for the elements break down individually? So while half of an item is broken down the other half becoming something else? Since nothing is ever "created or destroyed" idk. I'm really fuckin high right now. lol
half life has to do wih radio-isotopes over time. 1 half life being half of the carbon turning into RI's 2 half lifes being half of the carbon after 1 half life. so yeah, the carbon never decomposes all the way. but yes, if you keep dealing in halves, theoretically you will never reach zero. i have always debated that with people, and people remain ignorant and say im stupid. ive always liked debating it, cause it takes a whole class period back in school and another wierd thing about the atoms being 99.9% empty, and never touching anything... the wall you are "touching" is pushing back upon you, if not, it would fall over. every action has an equal and opposite reaction. or maybe there is no action because you never actually touch anything? now theres something to toke to
It's all about calculus actually. In your basketball example, halfway is 8m, then 4m, then 2m, 1m etc. For the basketball to ever get there you need to use a summation to take the limit as the amount of times you divide by 2 approaches infinity. It's somewhat hard to explain, but you basically add up 8, then 4, then 2, 1, .5, .25, .125 and so on and keep dividing by 2 infinite times. So when you add them up you get: 8 the 1st time, then 12 the second time, then 14 the third time, 15 the fourth time, 15.5 the fifth time, 15.75 the sixth, 15.7625 the seventh time. As the amount of times you add up the next number approaches infinity, the sum goes to 16. Mathmatically speaking, this is represented by:
A Greek philosopher named Zeno had this thought over two thousand years ago. It's an interesting prospect because on some microscopic scale, there will be a distance separating objects, you just have to probe deep enough. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno's_paradoxes