Is the concept of infinity practical or just theoretical?
In: Mathematics
A lot of times in the mathematics or physics it’s just easier to work with infity than actually big numbers, because infinities have some properties that make math simpler.
For example, imagine that you push a boat on a lake, and I want to calculate the precise point where it stops.
I write the equation that shows me the friction of the water against the speed of the boat, and how the initial impulse is going down with time. And I just need to iterate this over time. But what time? I care about point, not time. So I can just integrate the equation until “infitite time”, because the speed of the boat will go down and down to zero and my math is simpler with worrying about specifics.
Another example, you might want to calculate something like how light rays will curve in a glass. Sun generates rays in all random directions, but because for your practical purposes you might consider the distance to the Sun “infinite” and consider your rays to be parallel, and not slightly angled (like it would be with a close light source), making your calculations less precise, but still practical enough for your case.
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