it's not possible to program infinity, is it?

[Domski]

I quite enjoyed this program that was on the BBC earlier this year. The whole concept of infinity* still makes my brain hurt though. Don't think it's available to watch any more but you might be able to find it somewhere.

Dom

* Along with most other maths to be fair

 

[cornflakegirl]

The oddest thing I heard about infinity, recently, was that there are just as many even numbers are there are odd and even numbers put together.

That kind of screws with your head.

Yeah, that would be Aleph Zero, the infinity of natural numbers. It's intuitively true, because you can set up a 1:1 mapping between the even numbers and the natural numbers, with each natural number mapping to the (even) number that is twice itself (ie 1 maps to 2, 2 maps to 4, 3 maps to 6 etc). Since you don't run out of numbers on either side, it's clearly true.

However, since the even numbers are a subset of the natural numbers, it's also quite clearly bonkers!

I love infinity.

I was listening to something on Radio 4 recently (think it was called A Brief History of Maths, with Marcus du Sautoy), and learned that there an infinite number of infinities. My degree only covered two (natural numbers and real numbers), so I really must find out what all the rest are for...

 

[Greg Truby]

...so I really must find out what all the rest are for...

You might want to leave that for the afterlife - sounds like the perfect project for Eternity.

I've sometimes wondered, if, indeed infinity is actually needed. At some point, you run out of things to count. If we take the smallest of the subatomic particles and figure out however many there are of these in the universe; wouldn't that be, from a pragmatist's POV, the highest number we should ever need?

 

[Expiry]

You might want to leave that for the afterlife - sounds like the perfect project for Eternity.

I've sometimes wondered, if, indeed infinity is actually needed. At some point, you run out of things to count. If we take the smallest of the subatomic particles and figure out however many there are of these in the universe; wouldn't that be, from a pragmatist's POV, the highest number we should ever need?

I think if I counted my wife's shoes, I would need a higher number than that.

 

[Mark O'Brien]

I've sometimes wondered, if, indeed infinity is actually needed. At some point, you run out of things to count. If we take the smallest of the subatomic particles and figure out however many there are of these in the universe; wouldn't that be, from a pragmatist's POV, the highest number we should ever need?

You always need more than infinity just to get it over the edge. To paraphrase Nigel Tufnel, "This is one louder. These go to Infinity plus one."

 

[MrKowz]

I think if I counted my wife's shoes, I would need a higher number than that.

This

 

[RoryA]

My computer understands infinity quite well - that's what it loops to when I'm not paying enough attention.

 

[Easy-XL Support]

My new Core I7 is so fast it can process an infinite loop in under 10 seconds!

 

[DBA]

If we take the smallest of the subatomic particles and figure out however many there are of these in the universe; wouldn't that be, from a pragmatist's POV, the highest number we should ever need?

So what you're saying is - "It's the little things in life that count"

 

[DiscoPistol]

Chuck Norris counted to infinity. Twice.