Is infinity a number?

Answer 1

yes infinity is a number......

as INFINITY - X = INFINITY ,

where X is any number.
Hence Proved.

Answer 2

Infinity is not a number; it is the name for a concept. Most people have sort of an intuitive idea of what infinity is - it's a quantity that's bigger than any number. This is sort of correct, but it depends on the context in which you're using the concept of infinity.

There are no numbers bigger than infinity, but that does not mean that infinity is the biggest number, because it's not a number at all. For the same reason, infinity is neither even nor odd.

The symbol for infinity looks like a number 8 lying on its side.

Answer 3

The basic answer to this question is NO, but there is a slight dependence on context.

Infinity comes up in several different areas.

In calculus, it is used in limits and simply represents a situation where something is becoming larger and larger. Contrary to what others are saying, infinity is not a number in calculus! It is a shorthand for something blowing up.

Infinity can also come up in the context where you are 'counting' the number of elements of a set. For example, the set of all counting numbers is an infinite set as is the set of all real numbers. It turns out that there are different sizes of infinite sets. In this context, it is common to talk about infinite cardinal 'numbers', but these should not be confused with ordinary counting numbers or real numbers (those used in calculus). In particular, such standard operations like subtraction and division are not defined for these entities.

Another place where infinity comes up is in the study of ordinal numbers, like 'first', 'second' 'third', etc. The infinities that appear in this context are different than those that come up in the counting context. There are still different sizes on infinity here and people talk of 'ordinal numbers'. But again, these should not be confused with counting numbers or even cardinal numbers.

Finally, in more advanced math, the infinity symbol is often used simply as a plce holder with no meaning of infinite size or anything like that. In that context, it is possible to hear about 'a point at infinity'. Again, this is not a number, but an extra point added on to whatever space is being considered.

Answer 4

My answer is "yes"! Infinity is regarded as a number by mathematicians and to my awareness "no ordinary users of computing have challenged number/condition like infinity"!

Practically people don't need said number (infinity) for purposes other than grasping number application principles!

"Infinity" and "infinitesimal" are smallest and biggest real numbers and (though zero is smallest number) people find it difficult to grasp "need and value" of said exact zero!

Both "Infinity" and "infinitesimal" are technically inconceivable, which implies they are not precise number states). Yet "Mathematics" very much relates with both said numbers, which greatly influences modern computing knowledge!

So it is logical to say that "infinity is a number", though it is not a precise number!


Regards!

Answer 5

No.
A number, by its original definition, is finite. It has to be accurately determined (or determinable).

However, in some number fields, it is artificially considered a number simply to allow certain operations which, otherwise, do not make sense (e.g., dividing by zero).

Another concept very close to infinity is "boundless".

For example, the tangent of pi/2 (Tan(90) for those who prefer degrees), is not defined -- even though some books show it as being infinity.

Tan = sin/cos and cos(pi/2) = 0. Therefore, Tan(pi/2) requires a division by 0.

However, to the question: what is the highest possible value for Tan(x), we are forced to answer: it is boundless. Whatever number you propose as an upper bound, someone will find a value for x such that Tan(x) is higher than the proposed bound.

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Infinity is not simply a number higher than any number you can think of. You'd be surprised how big some numbers are in science.

Calculations involving infinity are different than calculations involving 'normal' numbers.

For example, take all integers (1, 2, 3, 4...). There is 'exactly' an infinity of them. This 'number' of numbers in an infinity is called 'countable' because you can create a function to identify each one.

Take the list of integers and multiply each one by 2. This gives us a set of even numbers. How many of them are there. Well, exactly the same number as the original number of integers we started with.
Let us call this set E (for Even), E= {2, 4, 6, 8, ...}
[Size of E] = [number of integers]

The number of elements in E is a countable infinity because we can write a function to identify each element (element e is the (e/2)th element -- 100 is the fiftieth element).

Let us use E to create another set called O (for Odd), by subtracting 1 from each element of E.
We get O = {1, 3, 5, 7, ...} also a countable infinity.
[Size of O] = [Size of E] by construction.

There are exactly as many elements in O as there are in E, and there are as many elements in E as there are integers.

Note that there are no elements in E that belong to O, and vice-versa. If you were to create a new set N by taking any 10 elements of E and any 10 elements of O, the new set would always have 20 elements.

[size of N] = [size of sample of E] + [size of sample of O]

Let us create a new set, R, by merging E and O. You would expect the new set to have twice as many elements as E since we added, to E, a set O that contains the same number of elements as E.

R = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, ...}
we are back to our original list of integers.

R = E + O
but
[Size of R] = [size of E] = [number of integers]

What happened to the size of O?

This is just a taste of the 'fun' that awaits those who allow infinity to be a number in calculations.


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PS:

Calculations involving infinity are not meaningless. However, one must be very careful in determining the correct meaning.

Zero is a number. In fact, it is an essential element of any field. You need an element which, when it multiplies any other element of the field, returns itself as the value:

0*x = 0 for any x in the field.
And you need an element which, when added to any other element in the field, returns the other element:
0+x = x for any x in the field.

Sometimes, though, the 'zero' of a field does not look quite like the number 0 with which we are familiar.

Answer 6

No, infinity is not a number. It is just a concept.
It is not a number because you cannot express it on a number line. All the mathematical operations on infinity are also meaningless.

Answer 7

infinity is not a number as there is no end for the Maths numbers

Answer 8

Yes it is, its a amount or number that cannot be counted 4 example: the INFINITY of stars

Answer 9

Infinity is not a number. It means 'the maximum limit'.

Answer 10

infinity is not a number its just a word saying that something would go on forever and stuff like that.

Answer 11

No, it is not.

Infinity is a concept to signify the largest number possible. Since no matter how big a number you can think of there is always a bigger one, the concept of infinity reflects that situation.