Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

snoias t1_iuav9h0 wrote

Reply to comment by superbyrd22000 in Eli5: Infinity ♾️ by [deleted]

> So there are infinite many infinity but let's talk about the two most common one, countable and continuous.

I think you mean "uncountable", not "continuous". Or possibly "the continuum", which is sometimes used as a fancy word for the real numbers.

> Countable is any thing one can count, think of the number 0,1,2,3,4...78810836689017,.... This will go on forever thus infinite, but in a infinite amount of time one could count all of the numbers (this is not possible for human because we have finite time).

I don't think it's helpful to talk about what you could do in an "infinite amount of time", because like you said that's not possible, and it's not really obvious what we might be able to do given infinite time.

A more concrete way to talk about this is to say that, if we have a countable set of objects, we can come up with a way of listing them that will eventually reach any given object. For example, if we list the positive integers like 1,2,3,4,..., then you can pick any positive integer you like and it will show up in our list eventually.

> Continuous think of decimal pick two decimal call the larger one B and the sampler one A, then pick a decimal C; where C is in-between A and B, then repeat (C will now be B and one will pick another C) This will go one forever and you can always find another decimals that we didn't account for. One can't "count" all of the decimals because you can always pick another decimals between A and B.

But this just shows that your particular approach to counting them didn't work. Maybe there is a way of counting them that doesn't keep zeroing in on a smaller and smaller interval. In fact, for the set of all numbers with finite decimal expansions, there is a way.

1

superbyrd22000 t1_iubgkx1 wrote

No I meant continuous with this definition "A continuous data set is a quantitative data set representing a scale of measurement that can consist of numbers other than whole numbers, like decimals and fractions. Continuous data sets would consist of values like height, weight, length, temperature, and other measurements like that. They're things that can be measured in fractions and decimals. Usually a tool, like a ruler, measuring tape, scale, or thermometer, is required to produce the values in a continuous data set." But yes the superset is an uncountable which would be the more encompassing definition but more difficult to understand.

As far as a method it's a el5, thus a master level proof would not be appropriate. Regardless the method I explained is the baseline for proving that a infinite is not countable via the proof of contradiction.

1