Usain Bolt and the Tortoise

In yesterday’s piece, I dove into what paradoxes are and why they’re useful.

Today, I want to talk about Zeno’s paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. Zeno was an ancient Greek philosopher who first came up with several of these puzzles we still think about today, or at least he has received the credit for doing so.

This paradox challenges our very notions of space, time, and motion. It’s easy to see why this 2500 year old thought experiment persists in our collective memory.

The Paradox of Usain and the Tortoise

The paradox starts with a simple footrace between Achilles, the fastest man in Greek mythology, and a tortoise. To give the tortoise a sporting chance, Achilles lets it start a few meters ahead of him.

I haven’t seen Achilles run, but I have seen the greatest sprinter who ever lived run.

Imagine peak Usain Bolt taking off as the gun goes off, starting our 100 meter race, the most important event in competitive sprinting. Racing against him is a tortoise, given a 20 meter head star…