As a kid, I was told 'the universe is infinite' and for all intents and purposes it was the easiest way to describe the enormous stretch of space that we inhabit to a child. In actuality, the universe is growing! An equally awesome concept, but seemingly contradictory to my previous understanding that the universe was infinite. How can that which is infinite, also grow?
What is infinity? My preliminary attempts to rationalize it numerically seemed futile. The idea that our number scale being infinite made sense. The number scale could not end because you can perpetually add to it. In other words, if you had the space, one could make tally marks on a surface forever. There would not be a point where you had made 'infinite' tally's. So infinity can't be a number, or even a numerical idea, it must be above these concepts, it must INCLUDE them.
Infinity has to be everything there is, and even everything there could be. On top of that, infinity has to be everything there isn't, and everything there couldn't be.
Scientific notation negated the 'naming' of numbers. Someone somewhere got tired of coming up with ones, tens, thousands, millions, billions, trillions etc. and rightfully so! We would run out of words to use eventually, our diverse vocal capabilities are even more finite than the number system we use. Numbers would have to have terms associated with them that we already use to represent other things in our world. Can you imagine a series of numbers (think trillions) named after you? Or how about a series named 'cat' or even a sequence of numbers called 'number'.
The issue that presented for me was that how can we define infinity without being able to even come close to reaching it? It can't be observed, or even fathomed. There are no mathematical formulas that can discern it or illustrate it. So then there are only two options left (if you can present a third, I would be open to hearing it!)
Infinity doesn't exist
OR
Infinity is the only thing that exists, and we are all just a part of it.
Scientific notation negated the 'naming' of numbers. Someone somewhere got tired of coming up with ones, tens, thousands, millions, billions, trillions etc. and rightfully so! We would run out of words to use eventually, our diverse vocal capabilities are even more finite than the number system we use. Numbers would have to have terms associated with them that we already use to represent other things in our world. Can you imagine a series of numbers (think trillions) named after you? Or how about a series named 'cat' or even a sequence of numbers called 'number'.
The issue that presented for me was that how can we define infinity without being able to even come close to reaching it? It can't be observed, or even fathomed. There are no mathematical formulas that can discern it or illustrate it. So then there are only two options left (if you can present a third, I would be open to hearing it!)
Infinity doesn't exist
OR
Infinity is the only thing that exists, and we are all just a part of it.
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