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An Indian once said, “Indians always

lie”…….

Possibly the greatest paradox is that


mathematics has paradoxes……

By,
S.Srira
m
X-D

P.S.Sr.Sec.School
What is a paradox?

“A paradox is a statement or a set of statements


which convey a certain direct meaning but
contradicts the direct meaning conceptually, thus
bringing rise to a seeming conceptual error.”

For example, let us consider the following


statement:-

An Indian once said, “Indians always lie”

Now, the meaning that can be directly obtained from


the statement is that the speaker is an Indian and
that he says that Indians always lie. This directly
leads to the fact that what he just said was a lie
because he is an Indian and Indians always lie. But if
he has indeed lied, then his statement that “Indians
always lie” becomes true, because he just lied…..

THIS is a paradox. No clear conclusions can be


derived from this statement.
This was just an example for the readers to
understand the essence of a paradox.

Now, ever since the basic ideas of mathematics had


evolved, thinkers always found flaws in mathematics.
One such thinker was Zeno of Elea, a Greek
philosopher who is famous, solely for his paradoxes.
What is most amazing though, is that he thought of
all this at around 445 BC….

Zeno of Elea (490


BC-430 BC)

The

Paradoxes of Motion: Zeno’s


Paradoxes
“In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake
the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the
point whence the pursued started, so that the slower
must always hold a lead.”
-Aristotle

-Achilles and the Tortoise

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 metres. 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 metres,
bringing him to the tortoise's starting point. During
this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter
distance, say, 10 metres. It will then take Achilles
some further time to run that distance, by which time
the tortoise will have advanced farther; and then
more time still 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. Now, this is a paradox for obvious
reasons, as we can see in any common race, even
when one is given a head start, the faster overtakes
the slower.
_____________________________________________________
_

“That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-


way stage before it arrives at the goal.”
-Aristotle

-The Dichotomy Paradox

Suppose Homer wants to catch a stationary bus.


Before he can get there, he must get halfway there.
Before he can get halfway there, he must get a
quarter of the way there. Before traveling a fourth,
he must travel one-eighth; before an eighth, one-
sixteenth; and so on.

The resulting sequence can be represented as:


This description requires one to complete an infinite
number of tasks, which Zeno maintains is an
impossibility.

This sequence also presents a second problem in


that it contains no first distance to run, for any
possible (finite) first distance could be divided in half,
and hence would not be first after all. Hence, the trip
cannot even begin! The paradoxical conclusion then
would be that travel over any finite distance can
neither be completed nor begun, and so all motion
must be an illusion. But again, for obvious reasons,
this is a paradox, because everyday we travel a lot of
distances and do reach our destinations.

This argument is called the Dichotomy because it


involves repeatedly splitting a distance into two
parts. It contains some of the same elements as the
Achilles and the Tortoise paradox, but with a more
apparent conclusion of motionlessness

The Infinite Circle


The curvature of a circle's circumference decreases
as the size of the circle increases. For example, the
curvature of the earth's surface is so negligible that it
appears flat. The limit of decrease in curvature is a
straight
line.

An infinite circle is therefore a straight line. “A circle


is a shape consisting of those points in a plane which
are equidistant from a given point called the centre.”
Now, this condition would not apply to a straight line
as it is not comprised of points which are equidistant
from a given point. But an infinite circle is a straight
line…..which is why this is a paradox.

Hilbert's paradox of the Grand


Hotel
There are two parts to this paradox:-

CASE 1: Hotel is full, some guests arrive

Hilbert’s Hotel is a hotel with an infinite number of


rooms and infinite number of guests. Every room is
occupied. A new visitor arrives. Can he be
accommodated? Yes! The property “∞ + 1 = ∞”
makes it possible.
At first it seems that he cannot, but then the hotel
clerk moves the guest in Room 1 to Room 2, and the
guest in Room 2 to Room 3, and so on. Every guest is
moved to the next room along. This leaves Room 1
vacant for the new visitor. Although the hotel is full,
the new guest can always be accommodated in
Room 1.If another visitor arrives, the hotel clerk
moves the guests again, and the new guest can be
accommodated in Room 1.Therefore, the hotel is full
and yet always has one vacancy!

CASE 2: Hotel is full, infinite number of guests arrive

What will be if hotel is full and infinite number of


guests arrives? Can they be accommodated? Yes, the
property “ ” makes it possible.. For
example, the manager asks each guest to take note
of their current room number and move to the room
whose number is twice that of his own. After
everyone has done this, only the even-numbered
rooms will be occupied and the odd-numbered rooms
will be empty.

So Hilbert’s Hotel is full, and yet it has an infinite


number of vacancies!

Paradox of Even and Natural


Numbers
Note: Infinite sets must be considered for this
paradox.

The Natural numbers contain even and odd numbers.


However there are as many even numbers as
there are natural numbers. This can be seen, by
pairing natural numbers with even numbers to show
that there is a one-to-one correspondence between
the two sets:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... n, ...
... ...
2, 4, 6, 8, 10, ... 2n, ...

Now, Euclid’s fifth axiom states that, “The whole is


greater than the part.” Even numbers are only a part
of the natural numbers, and yet there are “as many
even numbers as there are natural numbers”…..this
is the paradox.

Similarly….

Paradox of Odd and Natural


Numbers

The Natural numbers contain even and odd numbers.


However, there are as many odd numbers as
there are natural numbers. This can be seen, by
pairing the natural numbers with the odd numbers to
show that there is a one-to-one correspondence
between the two sets:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... n, ...
... ...
1, 3, 5, 7, 9, ... 2n - 1, ...

Again considering Euclid’s fifth axiom, this can be


deemed as a paradox.

Thank You!

By,

S.Sriram

X-D
P.S.Sr.Sec.Scho
ol

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