If we say that an instant of time has no duration, why does a sum of instants add up to something that has a duration? I have a hard time understanding this.

I think of one instant as being a 'moment' of time. Hence, the sum of many instants would make a finite time period (for example 10 minutes).

If we say that an instant of time has no duration, why does a sum of instants add up to something that has a duration? I have a hard time understanding this.

I think of one instant as being a 'moment' of time. Hence, the sum of many instants would make a finite time period (for example 10 minutes).

EDIT: Since I got so many great answers, I was wondering, if someone can also give a illustrative example, besides the pure math ? I am just being curious...

If we say that an instant of time has no duration, why does a sum of instants add up to something that has a duration? I have a hard time understanding this.

I think of one instant as beeing a 'moment' of time. Hence the sum of many instants would make a time period (for example 10 minutes).

If we say that an instant of time has no duration, why does a sum of instants add up to something that has a duration? I have a hard time understanding this.

I think of one instant as being a 'moment' of time. Hence, the sum of many instants would make a finite time period (for example 10 minutes).

If we say, that an instance has no length, why does a sum of instances add up to something which has a length ? I have a hard time understanding this...

EDIT: Instance: I think of one instance, as beeing the basic unit of time. Hence the sum of many instances would make a time period (for example 10min).

If we say that an instant of time has no duration, why does a sum of instants add up to something that has a duration? I have a hard time understanding this.

I think of one instant as beeing a 'moment' of time. Hence the sum of many instants would make a time period (for example 10 minutes).