What is your best personal "method" of trying to comprehend infinity?

Question

....the concept of the Universe with no ending or beginning; the resultant fact of time being the same? How does the infinitely small (beyond sub-atomic string resonances) tie in with the infinitely large(individual and/or parallel Universal Membranes, each with infinite space-time, within a Mega Universe(s) of, again, infinite numbers of "SuperMembranes")? How can one come even close to grasping such concepts as reality?

Answer 1

My personal way to understand infinity is this. Consider the number 9.9. It is a tenth less than 10. The number 9.999 is closer to 10, but not exactly equal. Now if you write an infinite number of 9s after the decimal, then 9.999... is exactly equal to 10. Only a truly infinite number of 9s makes it exactly equal. Any large but not infinite number of 9s, and it is still a little less than 10.

Answer 2

I think our problem is that people can only interpret things in 3 dimensions instead of the 4 from Einstein or the 10-13 for string theory. Infinitely small add up and interact in infinite scale to produce an infinite universe. As for a unifying theory Einstein couldn't figure that one out so I'm going to let it go. Personally when I think of infinity I think of a vertical or horizontal asymptote on a Cartesian plane depicting a hyperbola. Yes the closer you get to the asymptote the exponentially higher the number becomes. However once you reach it math collapses in a sense. So one could say it is a concept to explain what is currently beyond our reach or always will be.

Answer 3

Infinity means no end. Continuous continuing, so to speak. Think of our universe, everything we can see, everything our telescopes and spacecraft can see, and know it goes further out. But when we come to the edge of space, what comes next? Is everything we can imagine really inside a box. A box within another box? And what beyond that box? There must be something. Or Nothing. But nothing must be something because it's got to have a name even if we have no idea what it is. It is space. And space is just that; space. More and more of it. It is never-ending. Thinking about this boggles my mind. The other thing that boggles my mind is; when did it begin? Same result. No answer. For us and everyone else.

Answer 4

Well, you see, Eve ate some friggin' fruit, some type of apple-flavored knowledge-bomb thing, once, that God told her, and her friend, not to eat because they already had everything and they didn't really NEED anything more. Our minds have been on amphetamines ever since.

Mathematics have proven so useful in atomic energy and space travel that we've become drunk in a swimming pool of possibilities. Are we drowning, yet??

The movie "What the Bleep Do We Know ??" was fun.....and its sequel,
the 3-double -sided DVD set "Down the Rabbit Hole.... Quantum Edition" should be in my hands within the next few days. I also have the 5-DVD box set called "The Consciousness Box" and I plan to view all 10-12 sides of these DVDs in a weekend series of sittings.

I will check back with you on how I handle the "trip".

Answer 5

I don't know, when I think about infinity (usually comparing to things that are infinite) I just think about the realitive growth rates.

Infinity isn't a number, its more like a limit.

Answer 6

Infinity cannot be answered I believe. If space is infinatly small how can one move? Time and space (macro and micro).......such a difficult concept to understand. I thnk you have to take a leap of faith and just accept that it "is".

Answer 7

Find two very large mirrors, at least one of which you can move around. Point one mirror at the other and view the result.

Answer 8

You can't.
It is so huge that it's impossible.
But you can imagine really huge things.
Take earth for example it IS huge, and you are just a little dust on it's crust.
You cannot imagine it can you?
Well you can try to imagine a great big wall and you are standing right in front of it, and it goes forever in width and height. it works for me.

Answer 9

i did not understand your question,let alone infinity.
anyway example for infinity is something like draining / drawing
two buckets of water from pacific ocean and saying pacific ocean
less two buckets of water or adding two buckets of water to it and
calling it pacific ocean + two buckets water.
any action (no action) does not change the status or result.

Answer 10

i don't think its even possible to truly grasp infinity- and i think thats ok. if we understand everything it gives us nothing to work towards, and i like the notion of some things being out of our realm.