Ladder in.a room

[baffledgrandad]

thanks all - I am trying to solve the brain teaser of a ladder up a wall touching a 1 x 1 x1 box that touches the wall. I have found a solution with excel, but the fractional part goes on and on so can there be a "solution" anyway ?

 

[Romsek]

well eventually the fractional part gets below the Planck limit so that additional length isn't really detectable

 

[lookagain]

thanks all - I am trying to solve the brain teaser of a ladder up a wall touching a 1 x 1 x1 box that touches the wall.

Do you have a complete description of the problem with a diagram?

 

[JeffM]

Zeno’s paradox leads to the real numbers.

Achilles runs 10 meters in 10 seconds whereas the tortoise waddles 10 centimeters in 10 seconds. They race over three kilometers, but the tortoise has a head start of a kilometer.

At the end of 1000 seconds, Achilles has run a kilometer, but has not caught up to the tortoise, who is now ahead by 10 meters.

In the next ten seconds, Achilles moves ahead by 10 meters, but has not caught up to the tortoise, who is now ahead by 10 centimeters.

In the next second, Achilles advances 1 meter, but has not caught up with the tortoise, who is now ahead by a centimeter.

Obviously Achilles can never catch up to the tortoise.

And yet just as obviously, Achilles can run 3 kilometers in 3000 seconds while the tortoise has advanced only 0.3 kilometers, and Achilles passed him long ago.