Infinity! Wrap your head round this

Nutter5932

Ola,

So last night while watching the Olympics i flicked to a channel showing Horizon: To Infinity and Beyond ! anyway i started watching it couldn't take my eyes of the screen listening to various people discuss what this is.

So what is the highest number ?

They discussed this and basically said no one will ever know...obviously. Now I was always good at maths up to the point where a letter is thrown in then I'm running a mile . They mentioned Googol which is 1...followed by 100 zeros ! i thought wow then a GoogolPlex which is 10 followed by 100 zeros plus another Googol of zeros This is however impossible to ever write as thier is not enough room in the entire universe !!!!!!!!

Where do they get this stuff from ???

Also they discussed if infinity was "true" then their are also an infinite number of universes and earth's and somewhere out their we are living our lives in every different possible way so we could be the president of the usa .... tikay ! or some mass murderer !

I just that was plain weird :O 

This also came up as an example of infinity...

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

2,4,6,8,10

1,3,5,7,9,

Which has the most numbers in the sequence if it was carried on...?

They all have the same as you can just generate more numbers ! strannngggeee

probably not everyones reading but i thought about this all last night ha !

Also Graham's number is supposedly the highest number possible and we know it ends in a 7 but thats it rofl

unknown_username

Graham's number is indeed the largest number we know of. I say, we know of, but that's not quite true as we don't actually know what the number is. What we do know is that it ends, as you say, in 7.

Investigating infinity crosses the boundaries of mathematics and enters the realms of philosophy and when combined with quantum mechanics and astrophysics it becomes literally mind-blowing.

I devour books on these subjects whenever I can and usually end up with a headache. Great stuff!


ps. The infinite number of universes theory can be further complicated by adding in the possibility of infinite dimensions running along side them.

OMahonyO

This sort of stuff blows my mind.

I saw on a program not long ago that there were 10 billion stars in our galaxy, and our nearest one was something like 6 light years away ( speed of light is 186,000 miles per second ).  There are also 10 billion galaxies in the universe.

Tooo much for my brain to take.

I know one thing though.  If every star is a sun, then those who dont believe there is other life out there are foolish

Nutter5932

Yeah it really just does show how little anybody knows about our universe and infact our own planet.

The people that discover / make up / actaully understand this on a complex level are utter brain boxes .

unknown_username

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

This sort of stuff blows my mind. I saw on a program not long ago that there were 10 billion stars in our galaxy, and our nearest one was something like 6 light years away ( speed of light is 186,000 miles per second ).  There are also 10 billion galaxies in the universe. Tooo much for my brain to take. I know one thing though.  If every star is a sun, then those who dont believe there is other life out there are foolish
Posted by OMahonyO

In order to wrap your mind around the distances involved you can imagine it like this ..........

The following is quite accurate (scaled) and shows that the visual impressions we are subjected to in the media are ridiculous. By that I'm thinking of the typical things we see on Star Trek and the like.

Ok so visualise it like this:

The distance from Earth to the Sun
The earth is a Pea and we'll place the Pea in Trafalgar Square. By comparative size the sun is a large Beach Ball. In our scale the Beach Ball will need to be placed in New York with the Pea in London to give a scaled distance.

The distance from the Sun to the nearest star
Now let's imagine the nearest star to our sun. For size our sun will be the orange and again we will place it in London. The nearest star to our sun is Proxima Centauri, and this will again be a Beach Ball. For approximate scaled distance we will have to place our Beach Ball on the moon.

The distances are flabbergasting.

lucy4

its all quite easy to understand and explain really which i shall be doing as soon as ive finished these ciders & a few bottles of wine cos i usually put the world to rights after them so i see no difference as to sorting out the universe aswell.

loonytoons

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

Graham's number is indeed the largest number we know of. I say, we know of, but that's not quite true as we don't actually know what the number is. What we do know is that it ends, as you say, in 7. Investigating infinity crosses the boundaries of mathematics and enters the realms of philosophy and when combined with quantum mechanics and astrophysics it becomes literally mind-blowing. I devour books on these subjects whenever I can and usually end up with a headache. Great stuff! ps. The infinite number of universes theory can be further complicated by adding in the possibility of infinite dimensions running along side them.
Posted by elsadog

After this unrecipricated statement from elsadog that this is indeed the greatest number we know of, i must digress. I may be the greatest living human being alive that understands the theoretical principles of not only the whole of the quantum mechanical/physical theories known to 'man' in relation to the time and theoretical mechanical theories as to the status in the 24 hour universal understanding of the universal 'day' that the greatest minds of today recognise as the totalitarian time saturation of not only the thearetical theory, but practical participation of the '24 hour day' so i must state now - im tired and off to bed, night night.

unknown_username

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this : After this unrecipricated statement from elsadog that this is indeed the greatest number we know of, i must digress. I may be the greatest living human being alive that understands the theoretical principles of not only the whole of the quantum mechanical/physical theories known to 'man' in relation to the time and theoretical mechanical theories as to the status in the 24 hour universal understanding of the universal 'day' that the greatest minds of today recognise as the totalitarian time saturation of not only the thearetical theory, but practical participation of the '24 hour day' so i must state now - im tired and off to bed, night night.
Posted by loonytoons

Looney .................... I live in North Wales and I can smell it from here.  )

MereNovice

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

Graham's number is indeed the largest number we know of. I say, we know of, but that's not quite true as we don't actually know what the number is. What we do know is that it ends, as you say, in 7. Investigating infinity crosses the boundaries of mathematics and enters the realms of philosophy and when combined with quantum mechanics and astrophysics it becomes literally mind-blowing. I devour books on these subjects whenever I can and usually end up with a headache. Great stuff! ps. The infinite number of universes theory can be further complicated by adding in the possibility of infinite dimensions running along side them.
Posted by elsadog

This is not true.
I believe that Graham's number is not even the largest number used in mathematical calculations which is what was claimed in the Horizon program. It was true at one time but more recent mathematical proofs have required even larger numbers.

We also know a bit more about Graham's number than the fact that it ends in a '7'. We know many of the last digits; we just don't know the first one!

OMahonyO

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this : This is not true. I believe that Graham's number is not even the largest number used in mathematical calculations which is what was claimed in the Horizon program. It was true at one time but more recent mathematical proofs have required even larger numbers. We also know a bit more about Graham's number than the fact that it ends in a '7'. We know many of the last digits; we just don't know the first one!
Posted by MereNovice

Im glad about this.  They couldve come up with a more exotic name than `Grahams Number` for something so important

unknown_username

Could have been a really good name like ............. Colin's number.

loonytoons

Ive seen the advert and 7 is definitely more than 3

BelovedLtd

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

... Investigating infinity crosses the boundaries of mathematics and enters the realms of philosophy and when combined with quantum mechanics and astrophysics it becomes literally mind-blowing....
Posted by elsadog

Although I can't say much about quantum mechanics or astrophysics, I specialised in Number Theory at university and it is true that once you get past a certain level it does become quite like philosophical investigation just as much as scientific - proving that numbers exist for example

It was in the programme, but one of the more interesting aspects of infinity that I found was:

the numbers in the series     1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ........................

is the same as in the series  2, 4, 6, 8, 10 ......................

and the series                     1, 3, 5, 7, 9  .......................

but if you count every number between 1 and 2 (i.e. all the ones with decimals) - the total is higher.

i.e. one infinity is higher than the other  

loonytoons

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this : Although I can't say much about quantum mechanics or astrophysics, I specialised in Number Theory at university and it is true that once you get past a certain level it does become quite like philosophical investigation just as much as scientific - proving that numbers exist for example It was in the programme, but one of the more interesting aspects of infinity that I found was: the numbers in the series     1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ........................ is the same as in the series  2, 4, 6, 8, 10 ...................... and the series                     1, 3, 5, 7, 9  ....................... but if you count every number between 1 and 2 (i.e. all the ones with decimals) - the total is higher. i.e. one infinity is higher than the other  

Posted by BelovedLtd
If this is one of the more interesting aspects, id hate to see the uninteresting ones lool.

pod1

but surley grahams number plus 1 is higher than grahams number!!!!

loonytoons

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

but surley grahams number plus 1 is higher than grahams number!!!!
Posted by pod1

not if Grahams number is always infinity + 1, and it doesnt even have to be +1, it could be + 1/2, and anyway my dad is bigger than your dad so stop contradicting so there my arguments won.

unknown_username

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

but surley grahams number plus 1 is higher than grahams number!!!!
Posted by pod1

Infinity is a mind boggler .......... best not try to understand it too much otherwise we all end up in area51 permanently.

loonytoons

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this : Infinity is a mind boggler .......... best not try to understand it too much otherwise we all end up in area51 permanently.
Posted by elsadog

Is permanently more than infinity?

unknown_username

Yes............ Infinitely more


In a nutshell there is nothing more infinitely infinitive than infinity with one exception.......... there are slightly more Colins.

OMahonyO

Quick bump,

If anyone is interested, there is a series starting Sunday 9pm bbc2 `wonders of the solar system`. looks pretty good

unknown_username

In Response to Re: Infinity! Wrap your head round this:

Quick bump, If anyone is interested, there is a series starting Sunday 9pm bbc2 `wonders of the solar system`. looks pretty good
Posted by OMahonyO

i,ll be watching that,love things like that. im suprised they moved this from the GPC