Wednesday, April 11, 2012

zeno, life and fusion?

are you familiar with zeno's paradox? if you are approaching one from < one, every step is closer, but there are an infinite number of steps before you reach one, so you can never "reach" one. a demonstration. in my opinion to reach one is to become one with one.  modern math and science have used modern calculus and our understanding of time to solve this paradox, read: A Timely Solution.

We may say a thing is at rest when it has not changed its position between now and then, but there is no ‘then’ in ‘now’, so there is no being at rest. Both motion and rest, then, must necessarily occupy time.
                                                                                                                Aristotle, 350 BC

while trying to distract myself from my current stresses (homebuying, sick children, homebuying), i decided to put on my philosophical lenses and examine zeno's paradox.
my thoughts:

there are two things off the top of my head that zeno's paradox are applicable to:
1. creating life
2. fusion

let's look at creating life. on some level the interchanging of DNA to create a new life would be like becoming one. while observing the stages of meiosis, the division of sex cells, you can see an extraordinary example of a kind of blending, reaching one, and then becoming another one. however, if you examine the stages of cellular reproduction more closely, smaller parts of cells, take chromosomes for instance, don't become one, but join together and form an X, taking one arm and leg from each donor to go on and become a separate entity from the original two donors.

i don't claim to be an expert in chemistry or math (haha!) but fusion is so neat. from my basic understanding nuclear fusion is when multiple nuclei joining together to create a heavier single nucleus. i do believe it takes intense force or heat to make this happen (thus we conclude the heavy elements are results of stars violent exploding deaths). there is a one-ness to fusion. although, i am sure just as the life example, there are infinitesimally smaller particles which remain in tact as their own and don't become one, just a smaller part of a bigger or different one.

so, in my own equations:
creating life- 1a + 1b = 1c
fusion- 1a+1b=1ab
too bad math doesn't work like either of these!
i don't think i solved zeno's paradox. the solution should look like 1a+1b=1? or 1+1=1? or 1+1=1x?




it is interesting to me that some of the "solutions" include there is a point (.999r) that = 1. how can quantum particles exist if we eventually convert .999r to 1?
1/3 = .333... +
2/3 = .666...=

3/3 = .999...


firstly, that's not how infinity works (that would mean there is an end) and secondly, i am seeing the application of the leap from .999r to 1 being the negation of some particles because they are unobserved. (Higgs Boson for instance). i realize calculus has solved this problem:
 
i guess i just need to understand how by turning .999r into 1 mathematically isn't disqualifying a whole infinite world of possibilities.

okay, now i am just being irrational.