Is there a physics theory that says you can't leave a room?

[wierdaaron]

@Shagnasty

1/3 = .3333…

1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 = 1

Since 1/3 = .3333… then it is the same result if you substitute .3333… for 1/3 in any equation which makes sense.

The difference between that post and my earlier post is infinitely small. Effectively, there is no difference.

[Patty_O_Furniture]

Is that the same thing as “same difference”?

[wierdaaron]

I could care less.

That’s besides the point.

[Peanuthead]

@CookingWithGas

It’s just like Zeno’s Paradox, although it’s math, not physics.

A topologist might say that if the door is open, there is no such thing as inside or outside the room.

An engineer and a mathematician (both male) were placed at one end of a hallway, and a naked female was placed at the other end. They were told, “You can make as many moves as you’d like. In each move, you can reduce the distance from you to the female by one-half.” The mathematician said, “That’s similar to Zeno’s Paradox. Even if I make an infinite number of moves, I’ll never reach her. I won’t even bother trying!” The engineer said, “I can get close enough for all practical purposes.”

One small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.

[Jerseyman]

More important, why do Zeno’s paradoxes fail, as he knew at the time? He must have been trying to make a deeper point that looking at phenomena in that relative fashion does not work. So could we learn from that too, that our ‘relativity’ is comparing the arrow with Achilles instead of both against some hypothetical abstract zero background?

[DSYoungEsq]

@Jerseyman

More important, why do Zeno’s paradoxes fail, as he knew at the time? He must have been trying to make a deeper point that looking at phenomena in that relative fashion does not work. So could we learn from that too, that our ‘relativity’ is comparing the arrow with Achilles instead of both against some hypothetical abstract zero background?

Wiki has a good basic outline of the paradoxes, why they were propounded (that is, what point they were trying to make) and the ways in which they have been shown not to be truly paradoxical.

[J_Cubed]

@johnspartan

I recall having seen somewhere a bit of fun via nerdy applications of nerdy theories… that indicated something like when looked at a certain way, a physics theory claims you can never walk out of a room — the idea being you can only decrease the distance between you and the door, you can only get infinitely closer to the door, but you’ll never reach a doorway because the distance can only get closer to zero.

Am I getting infinitely closer to anything here?

If you ever find yourself stuck in a room, unable to get out, just do what I do: aim twice as far. Then you’ll be out in like the first time unit.