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There is this phrase, often used when describing the decimal expansion of pi - "keeps going infinitely". This phrase is not exactly incorrect, but I wonder if i
by alanbernstein 7y ago
There is this phrase, often used when describing the decimal expansion of pi - "keeps going infinitely". This phrase is not exactly incorrect, but I wonder if it misleads people into thinking that an "infinite decimal" is "a kind of infinity", which it really isn't in any meaningful way.
- klank 7y agoI think it absolutely gets confused. Infinity, the number, is routinely confused with creating an onto function mapping digits of pi to a set with a cardinality of the natural numbers. But sadly most people don't have the mathematical maturity to understand the difference when they encounter their first irrational number (normally pi).