this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2025
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[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (6 children)

I understand the idea behind this, but I always felt that it was a flawed concept.

Maybe my understanding of complex math is limited…but I’m gonna keep pretending I’m smarter than everyone while I enjoy life in my delusional kingdom.

Also this reminds me of the question “can god create a boulder so big that he can’t lift it?”

The concept of infinity is to mathematicians as god is to Christians.

EDIT: the above two statements were the jokey part of my answer, I thought it would be obvious but I guess not. ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ

[–] EnsignWashout@startrek.website 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Infinity is effectively just bullshit.

I'm fond of pointing out to my students that there's a very practical reason to care about "infinity" in math:

While nothing ever reaches "infinity", things absolutely do reach a point where they violently fly to pieces and catch on fire.

So I teach my students to substitute the phrase "explodes and catches on fire" where they see an equation that "approaches infinity".

I find it helps them pay attention to a subject that is otherwise bullshit. Infinity itself is bullshit, but it has a place in math: telling us when to quickly duck behind a good solid oak table.

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

I bet you are a great teacher.

Oh, and Ensign? Tea. Earl Grey, hot.

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