Celebrity Gossip: My anti-drug.
I was over at John's the other night and we got on the topic of infinity. Mainly I got on the topic of infinity. I was wondering that if you could pause infinity, so it was paused at one number, and then you went back to the infinity that had been moving while you were paused, how far ahead it would be. John kept saying that there'd be an infinite distance between the two, but the point of the question was to look past infinity moves at a speed of infinity (which is probably true, I'm not going to lie) and to see how fast infinity moved in a real space. The example I tried to give was comments on a thread-- there are infinity comments, but you can only see one page of data at a time. When you refresh it, more comments have appeared, but how many? I like to call this phenomenon 'linfinity.' On the contrary, I call the infinity at a speed of infity 'instanfinity.' I'm real clever, you can tell. A good example of instanfinity is the universe: you'll never reach an end, it just goes and goes and goes, with no end.
Just something I wanted to rant about.
I had another thing to talk about, but I forget.
Just something I wanted to rant about.
I had another thing to talk about, but I forget.
posted by Gil at
6:51 PM
7 Comments:
i really wish i hadn't read that post.
it's too early in the day for that kind of question and i know it's going to lodge at the back of my brain and leap out at some point when i could really do without it.
that's insomnia for you.
By
dan, at 2:25 AM
omg no idea what ur talking about, gonna have to explain it in chem tomorrow
By
Gingavitus, at 7:51 PM
First of all, you can't pause infinity and compare it to a "moving" infinity because infinity isn't moving. Infinity isn't getting larger as we speak - it's not even a number. Infinity is more of a concept explaining that there is no "highest number."
But going along with your question and pretending that you can pause infinity, the distance between the two would be infinite, since it's being compared to infinity, which never ends. But you couldn't measure the distance between a number and infinity because of what I said before - infinity is merely a concept.
So infinity doesn't have a speed because it doesn't move...therefore instafinity doesn't exist. But the name is very clever, I'd have to agree with you there.
By
Ribs, at 9:34 PM
rebecca, good points.
but also remember that as well as having no end, that infinity has no beginning.
an object will remain stationary or move in a straight line at a constant velocity unless acted on by an unbalanced force.
but even by not moving, something still has velocity, a velocity of zero m/s. so can a concept become an object? it's all about perception.
as you state that inifity is a concept of explaining that there is no highest number, we must also remember that there is no lowest number.
if you'd care to give me your thoughts on this and cause me further insomnia, please feel free to do so.
sorry, i'm just fooling.
By
dan, at 12:28 AM
Correct, there is no lowest number as well, expressed as -∞ (negative infinity, the opposite of infinity, whatever you'd like to call it). I didn't think to bring that up earlier.
No matter how you perceive it, I'd have to argue that concepts aren't objects. Concepts may involve objects, but they're just thoughts and ideas - therefore not having a velocity.
However, you had asked if a concept could become an object, and that seems logical. If you have a concept for a new device, that idea could eventually become the object. But there are many steps to go from concept to object, so I still say that a concept does not have velocity.
That would be similar to asking 'what is the acceleration of beauty?'
How's that insomnia?
By
Ribs, at 4:45 PM
I see what you're saying, but I'm saying if infinity were a linear, tangible thing-- not even an object necesarrily, but real. Thinking of it entirely as a concept is the kind of thinking I couldn't steer John away from.
But I can't disagree that it is a concept: I know what you're saying, frankly I agree, but I'm talking about a different situation.
By
Gil, at 6:46 PM
well, i'll hold my hans up and admit i lost that one.
By
dan, at 1:21 AM
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