The Forum cover image

The invention of numbers

The Forum

00:00

Is Infinity Really a Number?

The word infinity, the largest figure of all er. When did mathematicians start talking about infinity? And is it even a number? Een? It goes right back to the ancient greeks, aristotle,. He said there's potential infinity and actual infinity. Given any number, there's always a bigger one. If you ask young children what the biggest number, they'll say a thousand. But eventually they start saying, there isn't one because whichever number you give me, i can stick another knougt on the end and make it bigger. So there is no biggest number.

Transcript
Play full episode

The AI-powered Podcast Player

Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!
App store bannerPlay store banner
Get the app