Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Deep Thoughts on Infinity

Formula for why the sum of all natural numbers is not -1/12
from the blog, "Data Bonanza" 
Are all infinities equal? Why? Why can't some infinities be larger than other infinities? Why do I ponder this?

Why? And who cares, right?

But … stay with me now — there are infinite numbers between 0 and 1 (e.g., 0.01, 0.0025, 0.00968, etc.), with at least the same numbers (perhaps double or triple or more?) between 0 and 2. Right? And so forth and so on, ad infinitum, each infinity with more numbers than the ones before. So doesn't it stand to reason that some infinities are larger than other infinities?

And yet, whenever you add to, subtract from, multiply, divide, or raise or lower any number to the infinite power, the answer is ALWAYS infinity.

How come I’m thinking about this? Well … because my 6-year-old grandson who’s in the first grade brought it up during a conversation. First grade. Imagine that. And he helped me formulate the “Larger Infinity Hypothesis.” Amazing kid.

Ponder that. My brain is too small for all of this.

~ Inspired by my grandson, and something
Hazel Grace Lancaster said in the
film, The Fault in Our Stars

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