To Infinity and Beyond
Documentary examining current ideas about very large numbers and infinity in regards to mathematics and the observable universe.
By our third year, most of us will have learned to count. Once we know how, it seems as if there would be nothing to stop us counting forever.
But, while infinity might seem like an perfectly innocent idea, keep counting and you enter a paradoxical world where nothing is as it seems.
Mathematicians have discovered there are infinitely many infinities, each one infinitely bigger than the last.
And if the universe goes on forever, the consequences are even more bizarre. In an infinite universe, there are infinitely many copies of the Earth and infinitely many copies of you.
Older than time, bigger than the universe and stranger than fiction. This is the story of infinity.
If the universe's beginning was when they said, then it will be a long time until that monkey is finished. I think we should focus on loving our neighbor and taking care of each other and our planet. These pursuits can lead us to tangible benefits.
I agree more with Aristotle (there is no actual infinity) but in my own way. In my own hypothetical opinion/theory I devised years ago, actual infinity is subject to time and space and planck length. As time and space have a hypothetical beginning and end (e.g. birth of the universe and eventual cold ending), actual infinity cannot be infinite. Actual Infinity as a straight line of solid matter can only be as long as the longest object since the birth of the universe and cannot extend outside of those regions as it would violate the laws of nature as nothing could exist out of those regions, and matter could only extend outwards of 13.8 billion years. Maybe it could curve in on itself and wrap around like spaghetti confined to that universal area though, eventually ending filling up the area (infinite a sense but is still "less" than e.g. 14 billion to the observer)... Conceptual infinity is more of a fantasy to fix runaway numbers for mathematical purposes. The end of Infinity as a number in simple form (e.g. simple bits) can be computed, but you would use all the energy in the universe (again assuming the universe is finite). Eventually you'd run out of energy in the universe (e.g. using every last bit of usable energy possible to calculate infinity to reach the end). You wouldn't even know what the numeral end of infinity was because you wouldn't be able to observe the end of the calculation. An approximate equation can be devised however it probably can never be solved. E.g. if you could try to find out how much potential energy exists in a given area of 13.8 billion light years maybe by using stars (we kinda know how much matter there is and how much energy a star gives off before does) you could probably figure out a way to calculate it but solving it would actually require all of the energy in your equation. Not sure how black holes would fit into that though. However if energy can never be created nor destroyed in the universe maybe you can still get to the point where you can calculate something to the point where it grows so cold near the end of the universe where it physically stops or if the universe begins to contract again maybe that would be the end of your number before the bring crunch.
Loved it
"If I stayed on and all the other guests left..." That's false. Define the number "all the other" and you find it has no meaning. You can never specify what "all" of them are. I mean - how would you know when "all but one" were checked out? Count them? It is nonsense. Just because the words form a sentence that follows the rules of grammar doesn't mean it makes sense.
in-finite only means "Dunno". It is not a number. How many cats in a peanut butter sandwich? Angels>
Pinheads.
Infinity is meaningless it is all and nothing it is not and even typing what i have typed is a waste of time for time exists in the sense that it is one of the points of reference that allows us to navigate as humans but other than that it has no meaning as life could be said to be an illusion for it ends and when it ends as it does for all then all will eventually be not so since eventually all will be not then of course we use human vocabulary which is so limited as must be somethings that cannot bedescribed with any human language for example i have experienced certain thing or whatever that cannot be i cannot explain as no point of reference to anything of thise world so must be more be we cannot being to know what we cannot know so terms like infinity mean nothing and as i say again are imposisble concepts for humans to even find any sort of way to exp´lain not iwht art music whatever so so far as we are concerned life is not infinity is not
Infinity = life. infinity + 1 = infinity of one and one = infinity
What is the biggest number? There is no bigger number because if there were, you could always add one to it. What is infinity minus infinity? If numbers don't go forever where do they end? Find out why Aristotle banned infinity from his mathematics. The first mathematician that claimed the universe was infinite, Bruno, was burned to death by the Catholic Church in 1600. Kantor settled mathematicians down and developed the single set, so humans could focus on local equations. But decimals soon proved that there are infinities beyond infinities, and Kantor suffered a mental breakdown. Is space infinitely big or simply unimaginably big? Infinity makes the extraordinary mundane and the unbelievable inevitable. Are their consequences to an infinite universe? There are an infinite number of universes. The good news is that infinity can be anything you like! Google on then,,,
I didn't really get it. when you plus one to an infinity shouldn't it be infinity one? Why is it still called infnity? Is it just becasue infinity is unimaginable big number with no limit? It is unimaginably big does not mean forever isn't it? There has to be a limit for the biggest number infinity.
Time and size are all flimsy concepts when the idea of infinity is applied. In an infinite universe the only possible decision you could make to act against an inevitable set of decisions is to BE. We are all stirring ourselves sick in this madness. Making it seem as if we are individual and set apart from the nature of all things, when we are the spawn of this nature. Confining grand perfection and applying it to our lives instead of realizing what is happening, what you really are and the overwhelming fact that there IS a network of information (regardless of how it works, when and if it will 'end'). To BE though would be to experience the death of ones own ego. In this place of true being you will never run into something that doesn't make perfect sense.
Gonna watch the movie after work, infinity, no such thing. For every beginning there is an end. But not exactly, as with anything, energetic or passive, eventually transmutes into something else which would also seem true in the micro and macro-verse. So it's that cycle that can be viewed as truly infinite and unobservable in our short lives.
when man says something exists it becomes reality,i find this disturbing but also fascinating on all accounts.For example a photon not watched will run havoc but act normal when watched or observed.When a photon is observed it acts normally!!! what is normality in the universe reality or thought,as Sherlock Holmes would say something is afoot.
life is.... to is or not to is.
It's always good to revisit this doc.
az
I dont see why space being 'infinite' -something which is an abstract concept to begin with., has to equate with a multi-verse with replicas of everyone??
the little girl (when the children are asked: 'how big is the universe?' -who spreads out her arms and says 'that big' had the most correct answer. In that you never experience anything of the universe not within the confines of your own mind bc that is the seat of consciousness.
not infinity..but 'eternity' (as per william blake, -is not time or numbers going on forever but the absence of number, time (and differentiation). It's a mystical concept and I real that is not what is being discussed above..
it popped into my mind anyway.
'
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.'
'If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.' william blake
I think that these guys are trying to explain reality using math. This is leading me to believe that the best way i can explain reality using math is that {infinity + 1 = infinity - 1} = Reality. Everything exist within its opposite, life is a contradiction in itself.
This idea represents the branching off of Reality into infinity. And this happens as fast as it is happening... Funny how reality happens just before you can think about it, or lol just before it happens.
Since I've been aware of the nature of the universe and my restless mind has too much time to ponder infinity I have came up with an odd way of grasping it.
Our universe is contained inside a subatomic particle.All other universes exist in all the other subatomic particles that match to our observable universe.THAT universe is made of the atoms of another subatomic universe and so is their's and so on and so on.
The same goes for subatomic particles in our observable universe.Each one contains a universe all of it's own.Those universes are again made of subatomic particle universes.
There you have infinity.
Or I'm just talking out of my ass.Either way it's fun to ponder.
i love the "WHOA" looks that the creepy, bald headed british guy gives the cameraman. As if to say, look at me, im so wise and mysterious and creepy and profound.
"Infinity minus infinity can be... anything you WANT it to be?" WHOAA. That guy is a cartoon and a self- parody. Like dr. evil or something.
Interesting.. but hurts the brain
But i am searching for the right answer for how did zero divided into positive one and negative one and also why they do not meet to form 0 zero again .I think that there is some kind of force that is actually holding these two away from each other and the proof of this force existance is that we need a lot of energy to produce or extract negative particles in Particle accelerator or we can say that we need a large amount of energy to cancel out the energy which is holding apart +1 and -1 .
According to me there are three things in this whole universe 1.Nothing 2.Everything 3.Only one. We know that 1/0=infinity supposing that 1 is a unit mass , Infinity is all the mass existing and 0 is Energy then
0 x Infinity
is something
that is 1 the unit mass
thats how the first mass came into existance.
And bigbang occured mainly because this zero(Energy) divided into two parts
that are 0 = +1+(-1). or
0 = + infinty + (-infinity).
Thats why bigbang began from NOTHING.
They say that if there would be a finite infinity then what will happen to it when 1 is added . My question is that if we are saying that infinity is the biggest possible number or number of objects or number of events then how it is possible to add something in it.
if imagine there is infinite numbers or events then if negative of it is added to it then it becomes zero 0=infinity+(-infinity) if there would be positive infinity then there will also be a negative infinity thus the sum of positive and negative infinity is zero 0 and we know that zero is Nothing but it is also the sum of every thing.This means that actually there is nothing.We also know that every particle has a same negative particle thus
if there would be infinite positive particles than there would also be infinite negative particles.But remember sum of everything is zero meaning nothing.
Dear Grant
We are not talking of a "man" or a "woman" we are discussing the infinite number of natural numbers and that must be able to have counted everyting -- every atom, and every electron, every star and every galaxy and every universe and every man woman and child and every hotel room. Everything!