As infinity is not a number you lose in this argument
It is a number since infinity = 1 / 0, also if you think that infinity - 1 must be a number then: (infinity - 1) + 1 = infinity. Is thus a number also....
(02-17-2015, 09:19 PM)Black Widow Wrote: It is a number since infinity = 1 / 0, also if you think that infinity - 1 must be a number then: (infinity - 1) + 1 = infinity. Is thus a number also....
<3serious5flood>
There seems to be a common belief that anything divided by zero equals infinity, which is not remotely the case. The result of this operation (x/0) is undefined, it's wrong and you don't do this. Because if it did, then 1/0 would equal to infinity, but so would 2/0, which would imply that 1=2. And I don't think that's how maths works.
There is a number, though, that is close to what you may want and that is the aleph null (א0), which represents the cardinality (the number of elements) of the set of all natural integers (which is infinite, obviously), but it behaves a bit differently than your normal numbers (for example א0 + 1 = א0
You can also prove that x/0 is not equal to infinity just by looking at the graph of the function f(x)=1/x. As you approach the origin from the negative side, it will skyrocket up, towards positive infinity, but when you approach the origin from the positive side, it will go down, towards negative infinity.
That's all junior high school mathematics.
</3serious5flood>
Quote:also if you think that infinity - 1 must be a number
No, it's not a number, because that's kind of like saying potato - 1 is a number.
Infinity is more a concept than a number, as you can't really do anything with it. However, you CAN do stuff with values such as the sum of all real numbers =] (which I unfortunately do not know how to input with a computer keyboard).