A Formal Statement of The Problem
The problem as stated above requires some assumptions to be made. The following fuller statement of the problem attempts to make most of those assumptions explicit.
- Consider a thin and infinitely stretchable rubber rope held taut along an -axis with a starting-point marked at and a target-point marked at, .
- At time the rope starts to stretch uniformly and smoothly in such a way that the starting-point remains stationary at while the target-point moves away from the starting-point with constant speed .
- A small ant leaves the starting-point at time and walks steadily and smoothly along the rope towards the target-point at a constant speed relative to the point on the rope where the ant is at each moment.
- Will the ant reach the target-point?
Read more about this topic: Ant On A Rubber Rope
Famous quotes containing the words formal, statement and/or problem:
“The bed is now as public as the dinner table and governed by the same rules of formal confrontation.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“The new statement will comprise the skepticisms, as well as the faiths of society, and out of unbeliefs a creed shall be formed. For, skepticisms are not gratuitous or lawless, but are limitations of the affirmative statement, and the new philosophy must take them in, and make affirmations outside of them, just as much as must include the oldest beliefs.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Our political problem now is “Can we, as a nation, continue together permanentlyforever—half slave, and half free?” The problem is too mighty for me. May God, in his mercy, superintend the solution.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)