2 ms·
The problem with infinity is that it's a hack. It is basically the NULL pointer of mathematicians. An instance of a number that has a special meaning that break
by amelius 6mo ago
The problem with infinity is that it's a hack. It is basically the NULL pointer of mathematicians. An instance of a number that has a special meaning that breaks the abstraction of numbers.
If you want to do things with infinity, fine, but then do it properly and write things like lim x->inf (your expression with x here)
- computably 6mo ago> An instance of a number that has a special meaning. Not really. There are infinitely many infinities. Infinite numbers are not particularly more special than real numbers, complex numbers, matrices, functions/operators, etc.
- amelius 6mo agoInfinite numbers break the abstraction of numbers in important ways. Complex numbers do too (e.g. there is no ordering). But at least that doesn't cause as much confusion as some of the problems with infinite numbers.
- BigTTYGothGF 6mo ago> An instance of a number that has a special meaning Lots of numbers have special meanings. The ancients didn't think 1 was a number, and later lots of people didn't (and some still don't) think 0 was a number.