 First Steps to InfinityEli Maor
Chapter 1 in To Infinity and Beyond, 1987, pp 2-9 from Springer Abstract: Abstract Infinity has many faces. The layman often perceives it as a kind of “number” larger than all numbers. For some primitive tribes infinity begins at three, for anything larger is “many” and therefore uncountable. The photographer’s infinity begins at thirty feet from the lens of his camera, while for the astronomer—or should I say the cosmologist—the entire universe may not be large enough to encompass infinity, for it is not at present known whether our universe is “open” or “closed,” bounded or unbounded. The artist has his own image of the infinite, sometimes conceiving it, as van Gogh did, as a vast, unending plane on which his imagination is given free rein, at other times as the endless repetition of a single basic motif, as in the abstract designs of the Moors. And then there is the philosopher, whose infinity is eternity, divinity, or the Almighty Himself. But above all, infinity is the mathematician’s realm, fir it is in mathematics that the concept has its deepest roots, where it has been shaped and reshaped innumerable times, and where it finally celebrated its greatest triumph. Keywords: Regular Polygon; Entire Universe; Indeterminate Form; Free Rein; Word Zero (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4612-5394-5_1 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4612-5394-5_1 Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Springer Books from Springer |
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