Roger:
“OK, let’s cut this in half.”
“Cut again! Again half.”
“And again. Again …”
Watch fingers!
Shift to imaginary chopping.
“When will you finish?”
“At an atom!!!”
“Chop the atom!”
“Huh!!”
“Make it half an atom. If you have something, halve it. Keep going until …”
“Rooooogaaaa!!”
Perpetually puzzled for weeks.
Never recovered.
Note:
* Zeno of Elea identified a number of paradoxes. Although they are each similar in principle, the most widely known is that of Achilles and the Tortoise.
The one most closely related to the dilemma Roger’s almost practical demonstration is called the Paradox of Dichotomy – which basically says that if you have to travel to D, then first you have to travel to D/2 (half way), then you have to make it to D/4 (1/4 of the distance left to go), then to D/8 (1/8 to go) … and so on. But as this sequence can go forever, there is always some distance to travel – so you can never get there.
Want more … take a look at Zeno’s Paradoxes in Wolfram for a brief statement about 4 of them.
For something a bit more in depth try Zeno’s Paradoxes in The International Encyclopedia of Philosophy. For some reason this seems to take an eternity to load (keeps getting half way there I guess). Try also Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
365 Short Memories 
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