Zeno's paradox

American  

noun

Mathematics.

1. any of various versions of a paradox regarding the relation of the discrete to the continuous and requiring the concept of limit for its satisfactory explanation.

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Zeno's paradox Cultural  

1. A paradox is an apparent falsehood that is true, or an apparent truth that is false. Zeno, an ancient Greek, argued that a number of apparent truths such as motion and plurality are really false. A well-known, simplified version of one of his paradoxes is that an arrow can never reach its target, because the distance it must travel can be divided into an infinite number of subdistances, and therefore the arrow must take an infinite amount of time to arrive at its destination.

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Etymology

Origin of Zeno's paradox

After Zeno of Elea

Example Sentences

Jean-Philippe Toussaint, in his pamphlet “Zidane’s Melancholy,” invoked Zeno’s paradox to question whether Zidane’s head could actually have reached Materazzi’s chest.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 18, 2018

Yet it was a losing battle, or a specialised form of Zeno’s paradox: the closer that OED lexicographers got to the finish line, the more distant that finish line seemed to be.

From The Guardian • Feb. 23, 2018

As weeks passed, Crandon made promises that he’d soon hold the keys to Revel, and then the deal would recede again: Zeno’s paradox down the shore.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 7, 2015

Zeno’s paradox says that we’ll never actually get to 1, but from a limit point of view, we can get as close as we want.

From Scientific American • Jan. 20, 2014

It is the infinite that lies at the heart of Zeno’s paradox: Zeno had taken continuous motion and divided it into an infinite number of tiny steps.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife