Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: D Rider

Infinity as a concept is supported by: no matter where you draw an end point you can always +1, in perpetuity. Thus it is non-finite. So if you are unable to define and end, it is thus infinite.

The question becomes relative to your location on that line. Does infinitely large, conversely become infinitely small? Can/does infinitely large occupy the same space as infinitely small?


38 posted on 02/02/2016 5:43:57 PM PST by Ouderkirk (To the left, everything must evidence that this or that strand of leftist theory is true)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies ]


To: Ouderkirk
It is a mathematical concept, and is not limited to a line. One of the outcomes of the theories of relativity is the finite universe that has a beginning (big bang) and will have an end (heat death.) Quantum mechanics also defines the finiteness on the micro scale, both time and length have limits of smallness.
While the universe is very large, it has limits.
43 posted on 02/02/2016 6:04:23 PM PST by D Rider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies ]

To: Ouderkirk

In Introduction to Computing Theory (senior undergrad class — why do they always label the hardest topics “Introduction to”?), we learned that there are a “countably infinite” number of integers (or natural numbers). You can enumerate them forever, without getting to the end.

However, if you consider real numbers, you can enumerate forever and never even get from 0 to 1. Therefore, this infinite is infinitely more infinite (or something, I never really did get that).


51 posted on 02/02/2016 6:37:16 PM PST by Darth Reardon (During the Great Depression, World War I was referred to as the Great War)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies ]

To: Ouderkirk
Can/does infinitely large occupy the same space as infinitely small?

It all depends on your point of view.

From the atom's perspective, If one were standing on a nucleus of an atom, the distance to the nearest electron might seem like infinity.

To someone on a planet around Proxima Centauri the distance between the Star we call the Sun and the Earth is infinitely small, so small as not to even be detectable.

And yet, both are in the same exact space.

65 posted on 02/02/2016 8:38:15 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies ]

To: Ouderkirk
no matter where you draw an end point you can always +1, in perpetuity.

Unless you run out of ink. Ink is finite.

68 posted on 02/02/2016 8:58:27 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson