Select Page
Poker Forum
Over 1,292,000 Posts!
Poker ForumFTR Community

this doesn't make sense to me, smart people? (infinity)

Results 1 to 75 of 123

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    daviddem's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    1,505
    Location
    Philippines/Saudi Arabia
    You are confusing yourself again because you are talking about "how many" elements there are in infinite sets, or "twice as many" elements in an infinite set as in another. Drop that language, and you'll be all right. It doesn't make any more sense than saying that there is twice as much liquid in this empty glass as there is in that other empty glass. It's true though, because 2 times zero is still zero, just the same as two times infinity is still infinity. It's true, but it's just not a useful statement to make. Multiply zero by 5 and it's still the same zero, so why bother multiplying it? Multipy infinity by 10 and it's still the same infinity. Raise zero to the square, it's still the same zero. Raise infinity to the square and it's still the same infinity. Doing any of that to the infinite size of an infinite set does not change its cardinality.

    The trick to get it is to forget entirely the conventional notion of size. Pretend you never learned what size was, or never knew how to count elements in a set. Replace it entirely with the notion of cardinality and the existence of bijective/injective functions between a set and some reference set. That is actually what you subconsciously do when you say there are 3 elements in the set {a,b,c}, what you really do when counting the elements is creating a bijection between this set and the reference set {1,2,3}. Work from this premise, and the rest will come naturally.
    Last edited by daviddem; 04-16-2013 at 02:41 AM.
    Virginity is like a bubble: one prick and it's all gone
    Ignoranus (n): A person who is stupid AND an assh*le

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •