Re:Tell Your Kid That Infinity Comes in Different Sizes
by ComradePhil on Saturday April 09, 2022 @02:20AM
(#30965654)
Or leave them alone and let them realize that mathematicians who believe this nonsense are silly.
The number of even numbers = ∞
The number of natural numbers = ∞
The larger consensus mathematicians seems to be that these two infinities are different... which shows that most mathematicians have lost track of what infinity is supposed to represent. They define it as boundless but want to desperately slip it as a bounded quantity for their amusement and mental gymnastics like the Hilbert Hotel or the Banach-Tarski.
I would love to believe that they are confusing kids now because the adults have stopped falling for this nonsense... but I don't think that is the case here.
The number of even numbers = ∞
The number of natural numbers = ∞
The larger consensus mathematicians seems to be that these two infinities are different... which shows that most mathematicians have lost track of what infinity is supposed to represent. They define it as boundless but want to desperately slip it as a bounded quantity for their amusement and mental gymnastics like the Hilbert Hotel or the Banach-Tarski.
I would love to believe that they are confusing kids now because the adults have stopped falling for this nonsense... but I don't think that is the case here.