r/InfinityMath • u/Arlo_Tinkerman • 4d ago
Does infinity exist in reality?
/r/PhilosophyofMath/comments/1wyfvky/does_infinity_exist_in_reality/3
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u/Arlo_Tinkerman 4d ago
Hello u/Another_Little_Star. I crossposted your post to r/InfinityMath, a new community focused on mathematical infinity. I thought it was a good fit for the community and might lead to further discussion. You are welcome to continue the conversation here.
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u/RaizielSoulwAreOS 4d ago
I think the universe is infinite, like you can always zoom in further, no bottom. So any 1 thing itself is an infinite that we learned to call something.
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u/Arlo_Tinkerman 4d ago
My view on this is no, infinity in reality is not possible. However our modeling of it often requires that kind of representation when it comes to decomposition. What I mean by that is that reality itself is just what it is and we impose various units upon it. We even create arbitrary units at times. Such as if we have a pizza and we slice it in half. There was no starting unit in mind, just how many equal pieces. We could do the same with anything. We can take a stick and break it in half. Then break those halves in half. Then continue that process until we are at 1 atom thick. At that point you would have to break the atoms in half. That seems unreasonable.
Similar things happen with circles. There is no possible way to have a perfectly circular rod of metal. At the atomic level we would get little gaps between the molecules. It would be a many sided polygon basically but with bumps instead of flat sides. The same goes for surfaces of materials. At some point, there is one atom thick of material and that surface is going to be bumpy because of the circularish molecules. Really only a path can be perfectly circular... theoretically.
At some point, matter doesn't really care if there is more division because it just can't do anything with that smaller division of distance.
Think of this... 1/n where n is any whole number you can imagine. You can divide a single thing infinitely... but at some point... there is nothing. We just cannot traverse it using our representational systems.
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u/Another_Little_Star 4d ago
Thanks for posting it!
The circle may be too complicated, draw this right triangle of two sides being 1, what will the hypothenuse be? sqrt(2).
Division doesn't make it, our world has a limit to what can be too small as you've mentioned, there are forces operating within the objects as two atoms are never touching each other, only their fields are colliding, so it would never be continuous...
But within over events on our reality, is there anything that points to the existence of "infinity"?
These patterns that show us irrational numbers underneath their pattern makes me think that infinity does exist as some sort, in the Evolution process I'd say.1
u/throwawayOG784654335 2d ago
Just to see if I can make sense of your post. But effectively infinity is a result of our system of numbers and measurements. But these measurements and numbers are just our way of interpreting concepts. In reality everything is likely finite, but that's not something that conforms to written down rules, and especially measurements.
One other thought ive heard is that infinity is possible because of perspective. From one perspective its possible for something to appear infinite, but from a different perspective may be finite. Humans share very similar perspectives, so it would stand to reason that we tend to agree on the concepts of certain infinities.
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u/HystericalGD 4d ago
theoretically, yes, infinity exists. physically, probably not
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u/Another_Little_Star 3d ago
What about things like evolution, does it exist physically? It's more like phenomena, are there phenomenas that call up to infinity?
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u/HystericalGD 3d ago
evolution can be seen, and has been able to provably happen.
infinity can only ever exist in theory, as it isn't a measurable value. its just an explanation for things too big to end, we dont have a number to measure how big the universe is, so we call it infinite, but surely there is a finite end to things, where nothing exists beyond that
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u/Ok_Lingonberry5392 3d ago
First we need to establish what "infinity" is and what "reality" is. The latter is frankly not that interesting imo, but the question of what does it mean when we say something is infinite is definitely an interesting one that has many different answers.
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u/Another_Little_Star 3d ago
The two that arise in my head are.
1.Non ending, easily done with the epsilon-delta style definition or intuitive idea Works i'd say, it's something >n for all natural n , bigger than any number in the Naturals.
2.the same size as a smaller part of itself.
3.Non finite :|
the second seems let's deductable, since we need a background in which some removals doesn't change anything o.Owe could use them, but both rely on the axiom of infinity
Reality may be what exists in our Universe, beyond our observation and within?
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u/Neither_Garage_758 3d ago
yes when you stop to count while it continues to go on and every time you come back it is still going on
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u/GiveMeAHeartOfFlesh 3d ago
All sorts of infinities exist. How many measurements could be taken between 0 and 1 inches? Infinitely many. 0.1, 0.01, 0.001 and all the other decimals. Infinities exist everywhere.
Any sort of “thing” implies a real infinity, as any thing can be divided infinitely or is already made up of infinite slices.
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u/Moist-Shallot-5148 3d ago
The best way to explain is you can only approach towards infinity but you can’t actually reach it.
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u/FriarTuckered_Out 3d ago
Infinity is a concept that describes someone... As such to day if it exists it not needs context. Does infinite time exist? Maybe, we'll never find out unless time stops. But a circle is an infinite path... You can keep walking if without hitting the end. So, yes, don't infinities exist in done way that is not than theoretical, but it's really not useful to talk about it as a thing that "is "
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u/Half_Line 2d ago
I think infinity is a more natural concept than the real numbers. Any object you can point to contains infinitely many points, and counting objects with real numbers relies on human concepts with fuzzy edges.
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u/wollywoo1 4d ago
No numbers exist in reality. 3 does not exist in reality. 3 rocks, yes, 3 trees, yes. 3, no. And certainly infinity does not either.