This one has got me.
I’m reading a book at the moment that mentioned very briefly that some infinities are bigger than others. The book is unrelated and the author dedicated all of one sentence to the fact – but it’s blown my mind!
I’ve always thought (pretty sure I was always taught) that infinity just is. Something is infinite if it goes on forever, but how can something go on forever more than another?
I’ve tried to google but I’m just not grasping it. How is it that one infinity can be bigger than another?
In: Mathematics
Infinity isn’t a number, it’s a placeholder that represents the result of some mathematical function. You can’t just take two infinities in isolation and compare them, because we don’t have the language or notation to determine any difference between them. But it’s possible for the functions behind those infinities to be compared and to mathematically prove that one will always be larger than the other.
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