Drop it. It never hit the ground -Philosophy-

[Woodcut Lvr]

First things first. I am not, in any way promoting, suggesting, or forcing you to like or follow this philosophy. I would like to see how many people will understand.

 

 

 

Next up. I know it did, "touch" the ground. It is just a way of looking at this.

 

 

 

Lastly, DON'T FLAME ME. I'm not a fan of being flammed.

 

 

 

 

 

Alright then. Let's get started. Take a pencil or something light. Drop it. Now, you will see it bounce off the ground, or maybe roll. But, using this philosophy, it never touched it.

 

 

 

I will now be a hippocrit. Let's say it took 1 second from leaving your hand, to touching the ground. We will now take that second out of a "Timeline". I have created images to help the understanding process.

 

 

 

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That little line is our little time block. Let's remove it, shall we?

 

 

 

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Now we have a block of time, with our event in a timeline. Because time is infinite, let's divide it. First, by half.

 

 

 

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Now the pencil or whatever object is halfway. (Let it be noted, because it is the BLOCK of time, speed of the falling object cannot be used to dispute this.) Let's half that again.

 

 

 

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Now, it's 3/4th's of the way there. Again, shall we?

 

 

 

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Oh em gee, it's 7/8th's there. We're getting mighty close to the floor aren't we? AGAIN!

 

 

 

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Whoo! We're so close. I'd show more, but it's too close for me to draw images of. By using this theory, it never touched the floor.

 

 

 

 

 

I do not follow this philosophy in my life. I don't reccomend anybody does. It is a very pessimistic way of thinking, in my opinion. Feel free to post back, but I will not tolerate flamming. Have a great day!

[evil_mumm_ra]

i'd have to say that physics destroys this in every way.

[Howlin0001]

First things first. I am not, in any way promoting, suggesting, or forcing you to like or follow this philosophy. I would like to see how many people will understand.

 

 

 

Next up. I know it did, "touch" the ground. It is just a way of looking at this.

 

 

 

Lastly, DON'T FLAME ME. I'm not a fan of being flammed.

 

 

 

 

 

Alright then. Let's get started. Take a pencil or something light. Drop it. Now, you will see it bounce off the ground, or maybe roll. But, using this philosophy, it never touched it.

 

 

 

So what did it actually do to go back up into the air?

 

Did it magically lift back up into the air via some unseen force?

[Woodcut Lvr]

First things first. I am not, in any way promoting, suggesting, or forcing you to like or follow this philosophy. I would like to see how many people will understand.

 

 

 

Next up. I know it did, "touch" the ground. It is just a way of looking at this.

 

 

 

Lastly, DON'T FLAME ME. I'm not a fan of being flammed.

 

 

 

 

 

Alright then. Let's get started. Take a pencil or something light. Drop it. Now, you will see it bounce off the ground, or maybe roll. But, using this philosophy, it never touched it.

 

 

 

So what did it actually do to go back up into the air?

 

Did it magically lift back up into the air via some unseen force?

 

 

 

Well, did you read it, or just read that part and say "oh this is bull cabbage"?

[Howlin0001]

Yea but didn't get it.

[Will H]

It does touch the ground, because you can look closer and closer, dividing and dividing, and you do so infinitely.

 

And at infinity cycles, the distance between the pencil and the ground is an infinitesimal.

 

 

 

As with 0.999... = 1,

 

0.000...001 = 0

 

 

 

Distance between pencil and ground = 0

 

 

 

So you can study something infinitely, but you will just end up with the obvious answer.

[Woodcut Lvr]

Yea but didn't get it.

 

 

 

To be honest, it is a kinda hard thing to understand. Look at the pictures a little more, they may help a bit in understanding.

[Woodcut Lvr]

It does touch the ground, because you can look closer and closer, dividing and dividing, and you do so infinitely.

 

And at infinity cycles, the distance between the pencil and the ground is an infinitesimal.

 

 

 

As with 0.999... = 1,

 

0.000...001 = 0

 

 

 

Distance between pencil and ground = 0

 

 

 

So you can study something infinitely, but you will just end up with the obvious answer.

 

 

 

True, .999 repeating does equal 1, but you can continue to divide until you get something like 443757542627526/443757542627527 and continue going. You won't hit a never ending number because there are an infinite amount. You can get .99 with a google places but that doesn't mean it's infinite. Scientist may CALL it 1, but it's still not equal to it.

[nomadmike]

It does hit. If it bounced back then atoms connected and repelled. If you just want to talk about infinity use more math examples(I love trying to divide by zero) and less science/physics.

[Woodcut Lvr]

It does hit. If it bounced back then atoms connected and repelled. If you just want to talk about infinity use more math examples(I love trying to divide by zero) and less science/physics.

 

 

 

Well, the science/physics/the math I used, this proves that the philosophy could be used.

[Randox]

In the paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise, Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. Achilles allows the tortoise a head start of 100 feet. If we suppose that each racer starts running at some constant speed (one very fast and one very slow), then after some finite time, Achilles will have run 100 feet, bringing him to the tortoise's starting point. During this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter distance, for example 10 feet. It will then take Achilles some further period of time to run that distance, in which period the tortoise will advance farther; and then another period of time to reach this third point, while the tortoise moves ahead. Thus, whenever Achilles reaches somewhere the tortoise has been, he still has farther to go. Therefore, because there are an infinite number of points Achilles must reach where the tortoise has already been, he can never overtake the tortoise.

 

 

 

We know that achillies will pass the turtle. Calculus deals with this sort of thing all the time, but basicly even though the points are infinate, the tortise will be passed. You pencil thing uses the same flawed logic. Using this, I could 'prove' that my fingers never touch my keyboard, but since I am writing this and I can feel the keys when I do hit them, I think its safe to say that I probably am hitting the keys and the philosiphy is just as flawed now as it was back in the time of the Greeks.

 

 

 

Maybe someone here knows enough about calculus to disprove, I only have general knowledge of how it works, I have yet to learn the actual math.

[warren211]

Pencils dropped but never hit the ground? physics as we know it being defied by the concept of infinity?

 

 

 

Ok which moron divided by zero again?!?!?!

[Woodcut Lvr]

In the paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise, Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. Achilles allows the tortoise a head start of 100 feet. If we suppose that each racer starts running at some constant speed (one very fast and one very slow), then after some finite time, Achilles will have run 100 feet, bringing him to the tortoise's starting point. During this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter distance, for example 10 feet. It will then take Achilles some further period of time to run that distance, in which period the tortoise will advance farther; and then another period of time to reach this third point, while the tortoise moves ahead. Thus, whenever Achilles reaches somewhere the tortoise has been, he still has farther to go. Therefore, because there are an infinite number of points Achilles must reach where the tortoise has already been, he can never overtake the tortoise.

 

 

 

We know that achillies will pass the turtle. Calculus deals with this sort of thing all the time, but basicly even though the points are infinate, the tortise will be passed. You pencil thing uses the same flawed logic. Using this, I could 'prove' that my fingers never touch my keyboard, but since I am writing this and I can feel the keys when I do hit them, I think its safe to say that I probably am hitting the keys and the philosiphy is just as flawed now as it was back in the time of the Greeks.

 

 

 

Maybe someone here knows enough about calculus to disprove, I only have general knowledge of how it works, I have yet to learn the actual math.

 

 

 

I'm not sure how the Achillies paradox could be used to disprove it, it's a very... Vague story. A better way is walking across the room. Every time you move, you move half the distance to the other side. So first time is halfway across. Second is 3/4th's... You will never touch the wall.

 

 

 

And yes, I know that you ARE touching your keys, but this theory could be used to say you never did. Do I reccomend this philosophy in your everyday life, no. :P

[Woodcut Lvr]

Pencils dropped but never hit the ground? physics as we know it being defied by the concept of infinity?

 

 

 

Ok which moron divided by zero again?!?!?!

 

 

 

Sorry, I never divided by zero -.-

[Lenticular_J]

Sounds confusing.

 

 

 

It'd be more plausible if humans actually had a concept of infinity. But we don't. God did that for the lulz, I think.

[assassin_696]

The mathematical theory of an infinite series converging on a finite value does not apply to the real, quantum world (as far as we know), so cannot be extrapolated to this example.

 

 

 

The precise mathematical/physical definition of what constitutes "touching" at the quantum level is probably not defined well enough for you to use everyday examples as analogies, but whatever does happen down there it must be how we define "touch" because otherwise there would be no reaction. In short, the philosophy doesn't work except as an interesting thought experiment.

[cheese666me]

i dont get it :?

[anonymous1234]

[hide=Have to get this out of the way][/hide]On to the subject, I don't understand why you would constantly divide and then see that it cannot go the the next number. just because math says it never did, doesn't mean that affects reality and what truly happened. So please explain

[Cup Lion]

This kind of reminds me of exponential functions. The line curves and gets closer to the asymptote, but no matter what, it will never touch it.

[Captainkidd]

He's trying to explain that when the pencil, when dropped is getting infinitely closer to the ground but never touches it. Which is true, as nothing "touches". Theorically your hands should fall right though your desk you along with everything else in the universe should be a huge blob of infinitely dense (No free space) of "stuff". But its not... This works the same reason why if one atom was the size of a tennis ball the nearest atom would be 40 something miles away... Also why 0.999... = 1.0

[Lenin64]

I think I see what's going on. I just barely skimmed the other posts, so this may have already been established.

 

 

 

Basically, take a distance (4ft) between two objects. Then go half the distance, now it's 2ft. Half again, 1ft, and keep going. But you never actually reach the object, because 0 isn't half of anything. Can't do it with real life things, though.

 

 

 

Either I hit it, or am waaaaay off the mark. But that's what I got from it.

[Woodcut Lvr]

Lenin got it. That's basically what's going on here. Thanks for all the posts guys. I'm enjoying reading them.

[Shiny]

Ah this is interesting. But how do we not now that things hover a nano meter above ground. And that the sound isn't a sonic-boom type thing? I'm pretty sure scientists haven't conducted things like that. This whole thing is very interesting.

 

 

 

Lenin, you got the idea right, I thought you philosophy's lied just on communism?

 

 

 

I think you made the idea a lot simpler.

 

 

 

And to the guy who posted the "dividing by zero" picture.

 

 

 

Epic LULZ

[Dalcyte]

i'd have to say that physics destroys this in every way.

 

 

 

Not quite. This is a common philosophical paradox...Zeno? yeah. Zeno's paradox: If you a shoot an arrow at a target, it never really hits the target. The arrow has to go halfway right? And then halfway again? And then halfway again correct? It keeps goin halfway until infinity (meaning it never hits the ground)

 

 

 

There actually might be a mathematical theorem that disproves this, but regardless, it's interesting. I'd be really impressed if you thought of this on your own.

[Darksavior69]

I think I see what's going on. I just barely skimmed the other posts, so this may have already been established.

 

 

 

Basically, take a distance (4ft) between two objects. Then go half the distance, now it's 2ft. Half again, 1ft, and keep going. But you never actually reach the object, because 0 isn't half of anything. Can't do it with real life things, though.

 

 

 

Either I hit it, or am waaaaay off the mark. But that's what I got from it.

 

The infinite series (1/2) + (1/4) + (1/8)... = 1 so it does in fact touch because it converges to 1.