• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Infinity (1 Viewer)

XcarvengerX

Chocobo
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
378
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
Which one of these are correct. Why or why not?
infinity + 1 = infinity
infinity - infinity = 0
infinity x infinity = infinity
infinity - 1 = infinity
infinity : infinity = 1
0 : infinity = 0
1 : infinity = 0
infinity : 0 = undefine
x to the power of infinity = infinity
derivative of x to the power of infinity = infinity
integrate x to the power of infinity = 0

I don't know the anwers too as this is open for discussion.
If you have more, just add it here.:)
 

darkliight

I ponder, weak and weary
Joined
Feb 13, 2006
Messages
341
Location
Central Coast, NSW
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Just my thoughts and I'm not sure if I'm right, but, I don't think many of them are correct strictly speaking. Infinity is not a number so you can not do normal operations with it. We can however take ...

lim_{n->oo} (n + 1); tends to infinity (ie. it diverges)
lim_{n->oo} (n - n) = lim_{n->oo} 0 = 0
lim_{n->oo} n^2; tends to infinity
lim_{n->oo} n - 1; tends to infinity
lim_{n->oo} n/n = lim_{n->oo} 1 = 1
lim_{n->oo} 0/n = lim_{n->oo} 0 = 0
lim_{n->oo} 1/n = 0
lim_{n->oo} n/0; undefined for all n
lim_{n->oo} x^n would depend on x, |x| < 1 tends to 0, |x| > 1 tends to oo
The calculus stuff I don't think would be defined, as oo isn't a number, think back to first principles and the definition of the derivative.

Just my two cents.
 
Last edited:

Raginsheep

Active Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2004
Messages
1,227
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Agree with above. Infinity is not a number but rather an abstract concept.

BTW, infinity-infinity=0 may not be entirely correct or some of the others.
eg. lim (x->oo) x - lnx =/= 0.
 

XcarvengerX

Chocobo
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
378
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
Infinity is the largest number, isn't it? It is the limit of number or everything in general.

Also just notice that anything over infinity is 0, so infinity times 0 would be undefined as it can be anything, like the case of anything over 0.
 

Templar

P vs NP
Joined
Aug 11, 2004
Messages
1,979
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
For x>=2, xinf is a set of infinity with more members than the original infinity.

Or, xN0>N0
 

Raginsheep

Active Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2004
Messages
1,227
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
XcarvengerX said:
Infinity is the largest number, isn't it? It is the limit of number or everything in general.

Also just notice that anything over infinity is 0, so infinity times 0 would be undefined as it can be anything, like the case of anything over 0.
Like I said, infinity is not a number. It's pretty much just a technical term of saying "something really big". Of course, something really big is different to something even bigger.
 

XcarvengerX

Chocobo
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
378
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
If infinity is not something that is the biggest (or the limit), then what is that something even bigger than this something really big (infinity)?

For 1 to the power of infinity, the answer is still 1.
 

Raginsheep

Active Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2004
Messages
1,227
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Like I said, infinity is a concept which that does not have absolute definitions.
I gave you the example before where y=x for very large x becomes y=00. y=lnx for very large x also becomes y=00. BUT, y=x > y=lnx for very large x and thus one infinity is bigger than another infinity.
 

XcarvengerX

Chocobo
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
378
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
Like I said, infinity is a concept which that does not have absolute definitions.
I gave you the example before where y=x for very large x becomes y=00. y=lnx for very large x also becomes y=00. BUT, y=x > y=lnx for very large x and thus one infinity is bigger than another infinity.
But at infinity, it will equal even though it seems like y=lnx is smaller than y=x. I think it's called divergence or something, like in the case of infinity2 is equal to infinity even though it seems like infinity is smaller than infinity2.

They shouldn't removed "Convergence and divergence of infinite series" topic from 4 unit Math syllabus.
 

Templar

P vs NP
Joined
Aug 11, 2004
Messages
1,979
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
Too bad the Continuum Hypothesis is undecidable. Then we would have all the sets of infinite nicely constructed and following each other.
 

XcarvengerX

Chocobo
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
378
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
Is this article reliable? Looks like it is.

An extract from the article above:
Infinities as part of the extended real number line

Infinity is not a real number but may be considered part of the extended real number line, in which arithmetic operations involving infinity may be performed. In this system, infinity has the following arithmetic properties:

Infinity with itself

1. infinity + infinity = infinity times infinity = (-infinity) times (-infinity) = infinity
2. (-infinity) + (-infinity) = infinity times (-infinity) = (-infinity) times infinity = -infinity

Operations involving infinity and real numbers

1. -infinity < x < infinity
2. x + infinity = infinity and x + (-infinity) = -infinity
3. x - infinity = -infinity
4. x - (-infinity) = infinity
5. (x over infinity) = 0 and (x over -infinity) = 0
6. If 0 < x < infinity then x times infinity = infinity and x times (-infinity) = (-infinity).
7. If -infinity < x < 0 then x times infinity = -infinity and x times (-infinity) = infinity.

Undefined operations

1. 0 times infinity and 0 times (-infinity)
2. infinity + (-infinity) and (-infinity) + infinity
3. (±infinity over ±infinity)
4. (±infinity)0
5. 1(±infinity)

Notice that [(x over infinity) = 0] is not equivalent to [0 times infinity = x]. This is because zero times infinity is undefined.
Infinity may be considered as number, so arithmetic operations involving infinity may be performed. However, I don't think derivative and integration of infinity could be performed. Same as imaginary number i...
 

SeDaTeD

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
Messages
571
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
Oh, you can do differentiation and integration using i. It's just a constant. But be careful if you are dealing with functions of complex variables, but you won't need to worry about that yet.
 

Templar

P vs NP
Joined
Aug 11, 2004
Messages
1,979
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
SeDaTeD said:
Oh, you can do differentiation and integration using i. It's just a constant. But be careful if you are dealing with functions of complex variables, but you won't need to worry about that yet.
Integration in the complex field gets messy though.

Anti-Mathmite said:
Infinity is all things greater and smaller than 0.. So inf - inf = 0 is based on the assumption that it is a positive number that is relative to 0.. It isn't relative to anything and breaks all boundaries.
Do you know what you're talking about?
 

XcarvengerX

Chocobo
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
378
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
Oh, you can do differentiation and integration using i. It's just a constant. But be careful if you are dealing with functions of complex variables, but you won't need to worry about that yet.
Do you mean I can differentiate z=x+iy? Do I use dy/dx or dz/di? If you don't mind, please tell me how to do it. Thanks.:)
 

Templar

P vs NP
Joined
Aug 11, 2004
Messages
1,979
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
You can differentiate and integrate functions containing complex variables. However they are different to real functions and can get messy, so it's best if you read it from a book than trying to be told here.
 

dom001

New Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2006
Messages
14
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
The most obvious thing to consider is that infinite is not finite. it is not a number, it has no value; rather, it is a concept.
Therefore,

XcarvengerX said:
Which one of these are correct. Why or why not?

infinity + 1 = infinity
true

infinity - infinity = 0
to be honest, i dont think thats possible. unsure about it.

infinity x infinity = infinity
true. infinity^2 ~ infinity + infinity ~ infinity

infinity - 1 = infinity
true

infinity : infinity = 1
same as the infinity - infinity. not sure.

0 : infinity = 0
true. though infinity is not a number, 0 divided by any value remains zero, regardless.

1 : infinity = 0
not true. it would be something like 1/infinity = 1x10^-oo.

infinity : 0 = undefine
true. same as 0/infinity

x to the power of infinity = infinity
true (x in R, x>1, x<o. for 0<=x<=1, it is 10^-oo)

derivative of x to the power of infinity = infinity
d(x^oo)dx = oo(x^oo-1) ~oo(x^oo). true for x in R, x=/ 1 or 0. You could also argue the interval 0<x<1.

integrate x to the power of infinity = 0
S(x^oo)dx = (1/oo)x^oo-1 ~ (10^-oo)(x^oo). well this is a bit weird; any comments on this one would have to include intervals for x, and even so, im not sure it would be at all valid.
 

Templar

P vs NP
Joined
Aug 11, 2004
Messages
1,979
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
Actually, any number divided by infinity is 0.

inf-inf is undefined, so is inf/inf.
 

XcarvengerX

Chocobo
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
378
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
dom001 said:
The most obvious thing to consider is that infinite is not finite. it is not a number, it has no value; rather, it is a concept.
Ok. Imagine this:
How many numbers lie between 0 and 1? Infinite.
How many numbers lie between 0 and 2? Infinite.
It is a common sense that the second infinite must be twice as big as the first infinite, but we still called it as infinite anyway. As Raginsheep posted previously:
Raginsheep said:
Like I said, infinity is a concept which that does not have absolute definitions.
I gave you the example before where y=x for very large x becomes y=00. y=lnx for very large x also becomes y=00. BUT, y=x > y=lnx for very large x and thus one infinity is bigger than another infinity.
 
Last edited:

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top