Monday, January 3, 2011

Clock of Infinite Asymmetry Paradox: Answer


If the clock above has infinite asymmetry, then how is it possible after 12 hours it comes back to its starting position? 

The answer is simple. The question may at first seem paradoxical but it is a flawed question. The fact that the clock can come back to its original position has nothing to do with mathematical ability to divide the clock into infinite asymmetry. The former is reality and the latter is philosophy. Anything can be divided to infinity but that does not change the reality of it having a fixed dimension. 

So is there no paradox? The paradox lies in the fact that there is no mathematical formula that can bring the clock back to its original position after 12 hours with ALL the numbers (possible asymmetry) in between accounted for since there is infinite asymmetry. 

Another way to look at this paradox is as follows: 

1) If the clock is made with formulation to account for all the possible asymmetry in 12 hours it will never come back to its original starting position since there are infinite asymmetry.
2) If there is any forward motion of the big hand of the clock, however minuscule it may be, the clock will come back to its starting position even if it took billion years. 
3) Without any forward motion the clock cannot attain even one asymmetry. 

So it seems the clock can neither stand still or move forward with any possible calculation derived by current human mathematics to account for all the possible asymmetry. 

Are the clocks as we have it on the wall defying our current available mathematics? No. One thing that mathematics does not take into account is TIME. Nothing in the universe is same at two different points in time. The clock 12 hours ago is not the same as the clock 12 hours later although it may look the same. Time has passed. Unless an object can instantaneously coexist at two different points in time it is impossible for anything in the universe to be identical. This maybe conceptual but it is also reality. In order for anything to stand still time has to stop. 

Can anything stand still with flow of time? If all the atoms with electrons, protons, and subparticles of an object were made to stop in motion then the time would have stopped for that object as far as that object is concerned. Can this be achieved by applying absolute cold? Draining all the kinetic energy of electrons and subparticles?

If that is the case it would not be inconceivable to think that Time = Energy.