Physics vs. Maths

From a long old original story of the tortoise and the hare which I think all must have heard in which there is a race between the hare and the tortoise , hare sleeps, tortoise wins....... now in the original story it was given that the speed of tortoise is 1/10th of that of hare and also the hare was 1000 m behind the tortoise. Let us now assume there is no finish line, they can run as much as they like. Fare enough . What our common sense says there would definately be one point where they will meet , good , physics agrees will your common sense . Now, to find the distance when they meet we'll make a equation . As Let x be the speed of hare and t be the time they meet . We find they would meet at 1000/9 m from the place where the hare started. Enough of physics now let's play some maths here. Since the speed of the tortoise is 1/10 th of hare, so when hare covers 1000 m the tortoise would have covered 100 m more , when the hare covers that 100 m , the tortoise would still be ahead by 10 m , when this 10 m are covered by the hare the tortoise is still ahead by 1 m , when this 1 m is covered the tortoise would still manage 0.1 m and so on.....So realistically they would never meet , the tortoise would always be ahead by some distance although very very small. How come there is so difference in opinions of maths and physics ?

Note by Utkarsh Dwivedi
6 years, 11 months ago

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