Mr.Peabody wrote:I think the contention is between the math of the situation and the physical world. Mathematically one cannot make it to the end of any specified distance by crossing by halves, only infinitely close. This happens a lot in engineering, but engineers are only concerned with the practical applications of math. So, "good enough" is how the engineer's brain solves problems.
I suppose it would still make sense if it were a physicist and an engineer. Physicists are more like mathematicians than engineers, and live in the more theoretical, and abstract.
On second thought, physicist works but I think mathematician works better for the joke. I guess I associate Zeno's paradox with my father, a physicist, who first described it to me when I was a boy. But it is the mathematics of it, as you point out, that lead to the paradox. A physicist, for all practical purposes and as far as the joke is concerned, lies half way between a mathematician and an engineer.
Yes, yes, stupid joke fully intended.
JBArk
JBArk is a Mandelthought; a non-fiction character in a drama of his own design he calls "LIFE" who partakes in consciousness expanding activities and substances; he should in no way be confused with SWIM, who is an eminently data-mineable and prolific character who has somehow convinced himself the target he wears on his forehead is actually a shield.