Infinity
- Main articles: Infinity and Transfinite number
The ultimate in large numbers was, until recently, the concept of infinity, a number defined by being greater than any finite number, and used in the mathematical theory of limits.
However, since the 19th century, mathematicians have studied transfinite numbers, numbers which are not only greater than any finite number, but also, from the viewpoint of set theory, larger than the traditional concept of infinity. Of these transfinite numbers, perhaps the most extraordinary, and arguably, if they exist, "largest", are the large cardinals. The concept of transfinite numbers, however, was first considered by Indian Jaina mathematicians as far back as 400 BC.
Read more about this topic: History Of Large Numbers
Famous quotes containing the word infinity:
“The poetic notion of infinity is far greater than that which is sponsored by any creed.”
—Joseph Brodsky (b. 1940)
“New York, you are an Egypt! But an Egypt turned inside out. For she erected pyramids of slavery to death, and you erect pyramids of democracy with the vertical organ-pipes of your skyscrapers all meeting at the point of infinity of liberty!”
—Salvador Dali (1904–1989)
“As we begin to comprehend that the earth itself is a kind of manned spaceship hurtling through the infinity of space—it will seem increasingly absurd that we have not better organized the life of the human family.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)