So,Infinity.

kneemos

Apparently infinity isn't an endless amount continuing on and on into the immeasurable distance.
Apparently it's just a very big number,or all there is of something.

Somebody should have sent out the memo on this as I like most folk have always assumed infinity was the former.
Can anybody explain the concept in 60 characters or less?

Pac1Man

It's a quarter to three in the morning.

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

The Backwards Man

All numbers are made up, the sun doesn't give a fcuk what age you are. How many characters bis that? Sixty or six squilion, it doesn't matter.

Listen to Snap!

The Backwards Man

Pac1Man wrote: »

It's a quarter to three in the morning.

Says some eejit that invented a clock

Kermit.de.frog

kneemos wrote: »

Apparently infinity isn't an endless amount continuing on and on into the immeasurable distance.

But aren't space time singularities suppose to have infinite gravity?

Malayalam

Who said that?

(Contemplating infinity is very relaxing.)

dr.fuzzenstein

Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space

pleas advice

A fully booked infinite hotel can fit infinitely more guests

M.T. Cranium

Infinity is just eight knocked over on its side.

aaronjumper

Is several more than a few or just another way of saying a couple?

_Brian

M.T. Cranium wrote: »

Infinity is just eight knocked over on its side.

Oh gosh, the weather god does jokes too !!!

Avatar MIA

This thread is only 14 posts long and already feels like infinity. :pac:

ToddyDoody

op has an affinity for infinity.

Tazio

Its simple really ... take 1 apple... and divide it between 0 people..

McMurphy

My son just thinks it's a cool word to use when he's returning little digs in the ribs I give him.

Boom. "Got you last x infinity dad" he'd say


If I wanted to be a real smart ass, I could clip him around the ear and tell him infinity plus one, but its important to let kids have a win every now and again.

Cee-Jay-Cee

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space

I live next door to the chemist so infinity must be fuggin huge!

begbysback

kneemos wrote: »

Apparently infinity isn't an endless amount continuing on and on into the immeasurable distance.
Apparently it's just a very big number,or all there is of something.

Somebody should have sent out the memo on this as I like most folk have always assumed infinity was the former.
Can anybody explain the concept in 60 characters or less?

Infinity describes something that is infinite, if something is found no longer to be infinite then this does not change the description of infinity - it merely means you need to find a new description for that something

Jack Kanoff

You're delving into Carl Sagan territory here...but my take is.... before the big bang ..there was nothing...
And eventually, the universe will implode...and again there will be nothing...
All the bits in-between are infinity...the problem we have is the that we can't comprehend "the nothing"

Edward M

Johnny Dogs wrote: »

My son just thinks it's a cool word to use when he's returning little digs in the ribs I give him.

Boom. "Got you last x infinity dad" he'd say


If I wanted to be a real smart ass, I could clip him around the ear and tell him infinity plus one, but its important to let kids have a win every now and again.

I'll show that to blanch!

mr_edge_to_you

Taking a few liberties with these quotes before the pedantic Pats get their knickers in a twist.

Ali G: “what’s the biggest number?”
Mathematician: “no such thing.....infinity”
Ali G: “what about infinity plus one?”

NIMAN

Infinity is what the homelessness figures in Ireland will eventually reach.

CruelCoin

Depends on the context i would imagine.

You can count towards infinity the number of apples in a basket, but there is an obvious limit where that ends, so in that case infinity ends when the count stops.

But if you were to try count the stars in the universe, and count towards infinity, then infinite as a limitless number is valid, as there are more stars in the universe than there is the ability in the human mind to comprehend the resulting number.

garbo speaks

NIMAN wrote: »

Infinity is what the homelessness figures in Ireland will eventually reach.

Get this man on Have I Got News For You.

TheValeyard

Infinity

Avatar MIA

Jack Kanoff wrote: »

And eventually, the universe will implode...a

Not true, the speed of expansion is picking up and there's no going back. It'd be kind of neat if the universe were slowing down and went into reverse to a big crunch, then you could speculate that it's all wash, rinse repeat. But, the universe said and this is the technical term, 'Nah!'

CruelCoin wrote: »

than there is the ability in the human mind to comprehend the resulting number.

Apart from it being an ever changing number (some visible stars are gone, and some stars created haven't had time for their light to reach us), and while there's a very large number of stars in the universe...

There are about 10 billion galaxies in the observable universe! The number of stars in a galaxy varies, but assuming an average of 100 billion stars per galaxy means that there are about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that's 1 billion trillion) stars in the observable universe!

it is a finite number.

Whereas the amount of numbers between 1 and 2 is infinite.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

But aren't space time singularities suppose to have infinite gravity?

Anytime we get singularities in physics it means that there is something wrong.

Avatar MIA

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Anytime we get singularities in mathematics it means that there is something wrong.

And if it was infinite we'd not have Hawking's Radiation.

Both from the same scientist I believe.

RIP

Jack Kanoff

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Not true, the speed of expansion is picking up and there's no going back. It'd be kind of neat if the universe were slowing down and went into reverse to a big crunch, then you could speculate that it's all wash, rinse repeat. But, the universe said and this is the technical term, 'Nah!.

It called The Big Crunch, the universe will continue to expand...and then it won't...it contracts and that's it...comes to an end... possibly.
Don't think either of us have to worry about it though...not going to happen for a few years

kneemos

The definition of infinite is endless or immeasurable.

The scienticians might have their own definition of it,but they need to stop using it when they're out in public.

Avatar MIA

Jack Kanoff wrote: »

It called The Big Crunch, the universe will continue to expand...and then it won't...it contracts and that's items.

Yes, the Big Crunch, I should have capitalised.

Why do you think the universe will continue to expand and then go into reverse? Is everything going to bounce off a wall and come back?

Per Newton's first law there would need to be a force to first slow it down and then make it go into reverse, and what would that be?

Jack Kanoff

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Yes, the Big Crunch, I should have capitalised.

Why do you think the universe will continue to expand and then go into reverse? Is everything going to bounce off a wall and come back?

Per Newton's first law there would need to be a force to first slow it down and then make it go into reverse, and what would that be?

Gravity my good fellow, gravity.

kneemos

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Yes, the Big Crunch, I should have capitalised.

Why do you think the universe will continue to expand and then go into reverse? Is everything going to bounce off a wall and come back?

Per Newton's first law there would need to be a force to first slow it down and then make it go into reverse, and what would that be?

How was it compressed to a single point in the first place?

Franz Von Peppercorn

In reality infinity is a mathematical concept not a physical one. So the age of the universe is not that relevant.

In mathematics there’s different infinities. Countable and uncountable.

Avatar MIA

Jack Kanoff wrote: »

Gravity my good fellow, gravity.

Oh right, never heard of gravity before, do please continue...

Avatar MIA

kneemos wrote: »

How was it compressed to a single point in the first place?

God, obvs.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Oh right, never heard of gravity before, do please continue...

He’s saying that the expansion due to the Big Bang will slow or stop and gravity will continue to exist as an attractive force and therefore the universe will contract.

Perfectly sound in theory but the observations don’t show that the expansion is slowing, instead it is accelerating.

Avatar MIA

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

He’s saying that the expansion due to the Big Bang will slow or stop and gravity will continue to exist as an attractive force and therefore the universe will contract.

Perfectly sound in theory but the observations don’t show that the expansion is slowing, instead it is accelerating.

I know that's what he's saying and I'm disagreeing with him because of what you're saying. :pac:

If there was enough matter in the universe (regular and dark) it would never have started to accelerate. Which concludes we continue into the very far (but not infinite) future and the heat death of the universe. Don't worry, there's plenty of them around.

Irish Guitarist

They changed the meaning of a billion a few years ago too. In America it meant a thousand million. In the British isles it was a million million. Now the American definition is the official meaning in the British isles too.

What confuses me is I remember this happening during my lifetime. In school I was taught a billion was a thousand million. I was sure this happened sometime in the late eighties or early nineties. But apparently the definition was changed in 1975, the year before I was born.

https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-61424,00.html

Franz Von Peppercorn

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

They changed the meaning of a billion a few years ago too. In America it meant a thousand million. In the British isles it was a million million. Now the American definition is the official meaning in the British isles too.

What confuses me is I remember this happening during my lifetime. In school I was taught a billion was a thousand million. I was sure this happened sometime in the late eighties or early nineties. But apparently the definition was changed in 1975, the year before I was born.

https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-61424,00.html

Your original schoolbooks were probably first printed before you were born though :-p

Avatar MIA

Waits for it...

Franz Von Peppercorn

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Waits for it...

You waiting for infinity? Not happening today.

Avatar MIA

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

You waiting for infinity? Not happening today.

Still waiting, but this will happen today. It's a universal boards.ie constant.

tritium

Tazio wrote: »

Its simple really ... take 1 apple... and divide it between 0 people..

That’s not infinity, it’s undefined. It tend to infinity and the denominator gets smaller but it’s not defined at 0

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

kneemos wrote: »

Apparently infinity isn't an endless amount continuing on and on into the immeasurable distance.
Apparently it's just a very big number,or all there is of something.

Somebody should have sent out the memo on this as I like most folk have always assumed infinity was the former.
Can anybody explain the concept in 60 characters or less?

I'm hearing Rick Sanchez's voice in my head when I read this...

Pac1Man wrote: »

It's a quarter to three in the morning.

... and Morty's when I read this.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Still waiting, but this will happen today. It's a universal boards.ie constant.

I gave your ma infinite pleasure?

What do you get if you divide infinity by two

Avatar MIA

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

I gave your ma infinite pleasure?

I'm sure she loved it, but keep a careful watch, necrophilia can be frowned upon.

Avatar MIA

Deleted User wrote: »

What do you get if you divide infinity by two

Stick it into your calculator there and let us know :pac:

Franz Von Peppercorn

Avatar MIA wrote: »

I'm sure she loved it, but keep a careful watch, necrophilia can be frowned upon.

Reminds me of the same mistake I made in school.

Anyway I was trying to work out what the AH reply was, not referencing any particular mother.

Franz Von Peppercorn

[Deleted User] wrote: »

What do you get if you divide infinity by two

Infinity. Which also means that you can’t divine infinity by infinity and get 1.