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Logic / Math problem

skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
edited February 2008 in Strut Central
My 11 yr old son, mildly Apserger syndromic, posed the following to me at the weekend:Infinity + 1 = InfinityDeducting Infinity from both sides+ 1 = 0I need to hit him with a one line rebuttal or we'll be discussing it for a year. And there are better things to talk about.I am fast coming to the conclusion that Infinity does not exist in any meaningful way.BTW he rides hard for the Ramones and punk in general. Any help you could give, with a punk slant, would be highly appreciated by me.I am not holding out any hope on this one.....
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  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    Infinity is not a number, it's a concept bro. Like a slew is a concept. Undefined, nahmean bro?
  • JoeMojoJoeMojo 720 Posts
    Try Peter Suber's "Infinite Reflections and "A Crash Course in the Mathematics of Infinite Sets". My math is pretty rusty, but I think what you need to address is whether adding real numbers into an infinite set changes its cardinality - that is, are the two sides in your first equation truly equal?

    By the way this is a great poast.
  • bthavbthav 1,538 Posts

    Infinity + 1 = Infinity
    Deducting Infinity from both sides
    + 1 = 0

    when compared to infinity, 1 ~= 0... in fact 210938402358304580234802840329840923840293 ~= 0 when compared to infinity. this estimation happens all the time in math based sciences.
  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    Seriously, y'all are overthinking it, bros. Infinity is a number like "a whole bunch" or "several" is a number. Meaning it's not a number. So stop trying to do math with it. You might as well do math with the words "banana" and "envelope".

    Bros.
  • bthavbthav 1,538 Posts
    Seriously, y'all are overthinking it, bros. Infinity is a number like "a whole bunch" or "several" is a number. Meaning it's not a number. So stop trying to do math with it. You might as well do math with the words "banana" and "envelope".

    Bros.

    no your totally right, but in application its best to think of infinity as some ridiculously large number. (aka my electrophysics class sucks nuts right now).
  • ToccuDomuToccuDomu 225 Posts
    So stop trying to do math with it. You might as well do math with the words "banana" and "envelope".
    Bros.

    I think Banana and Envelope were a part of the algebra equation which finally convinced me that I really wasn't cut out for mathematics.
  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    Here's a tough for you to pose to your son, Skel:

    If the three times banana minus the square root of envelope equals infinity, what is the value of envelope?

    Please express the answer in terms of banana.
  • dollar_bindollar_bin I heartily endorse this product and/or event 2,326 Posts
    Here's a tough for you to pose to your son, Skel:

    If the three times banana minus the square root of envelope equals infinity, what is the value of envelope?

    Please express the answer in terms of banana.

    I have a truly marvelous proof of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain
  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    Where's Sun Ra when we need him?
  • HamHam 872 Posts
    Here's a tough for you to pose to your son, Skel:

    If the three times banana minus the square root of envelope equals infinity, what is the value of envelope?

    Please express the answer in terms of banana.

    I have a truly marvelous proof of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain


    yay, i got a math reference joke!
  • Garcia_VegaGarcia_Vega 2,428 Posts
    Seriously, y'all are overthinking it, bros. Infinity is a number like "a whole bunch" or "several" is a number. Meaning it's not a number. So stop trying to do math with it. You might as well do math with the words "banana" and "envelope".

    Bros.

    Get real bro. Chuck Norris counted to infinity, twice.
  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    So, "infinity one" isn't really a number? This shines a whole new light on things...
  • JoeMojoJoeMojo 720 Posts
    Seriously, y'all are overthinking it, bros. Infinity is a number like "a whole bunch" or "several" is a number. Meaning it's not a number. So stop trying to do math with it. You might as well do math with the words "banana" and "envelope".

    Nah, that's not true. There's a whole branch of mathematics based on the differentiation and manipulation of different flavors of infinity. Take a look at the article on infinite sets that I linked to above. Or the Wikipedia page on basic infinite set theory.
  • kitchenknightkitchenknight 4,922 Posts
    WORLD'S GREATEST RECORD COLLECTION!!

    INFINITY RECORDS!

    Minimum bid: INFINITY + $3,000,000!

  • DJFerrariDJFerrari 2,411 Posts
    You can't triple stamp a double stamp!
  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    different flavors of infinity.

    If it's undefined, thus having many "flavors", how can it be a number? How is infinity different than "a whole shitload"? How many flavors of "5" are there? What do the many flavors of infinity taste like? If I build a whole set of theories based around the premise that monkeys are actually helicopters, and they all taste a little different from each other, does that make it true?

    Talk to me bro.
  • dollar_bindollar_bin I heartily endorse this product and/or event 2,326 Posts
    Here's a tough for you to pose to your son, Skel:

    If the three times banana minus the square root of envelope equals infinity, what is the value of envelope?

    Please express the answer in terms of banana.

    done!

  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    Here's a tough for you to pose to your son, Skel:

    If the three times banana minus the square root of envelope equals infinity, what is the value of envelope?

    Please express the answer in terms of banana.

    done!


    Awesome! I nominate this as the answer to every hypothetical and/or unsolvable question ever devised.
  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts


    Infinity = Everything
  • residentgiantresidentgiant 619 Posts
    I'm no mathematician ... in fact i'm downright horrendous at math, but I tend to think/daydream about this thing more than I probably should.

    If you have an infinite number of jellybeans laid out in a straight line, and every 5th jellybean is red - all the others are blue - do you have more blue jellybeans than red? Of course not. What you're dealing with is frequency. You're going to encounter less red than blue but there's just as many there.

    So saying "infinity plus 1" is sort of redundant because infinity is constantly adding to itself. You can add or subtract as many red jellybeans as you want, there's still an endless supply of em.
  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    You can add or subtract as many red jellybeans as you want, there's still an endless supply of em.

    What if I were to subtract infinite bananas from your jellybeans? How many envelopes would you have then?
  • residentgiantresidentgiant 619 Posts


    What if I were to subtract infinite bananas from your jellybeans? How many envelopes would you have then?

    infinite envelopes containing the complete works of shakespeare typed by an infinite number of monkeys.

  • OkemOkem 4,617 Posts
    This thread shreds.


    This is the level of my maths though.

  • JoeMojoJoeMojo 720 Posts
    different flavors of infinity.

    If it's undefined, thus having many "flavors", how can it be a number? How is infinity different than "a whole shitload"? How many flavors of "5" are there? What do the many flavors of infinity taste like? If I build a whole set of theories based around the premise that monkeys are actually helicopters, and they all taste a little different from each other, does that make it true?

    Talk to me bro.

    Read those Peter Suber articles I posted, they're a good introduction.
  • bthavbthav 1,538 Posts
    This thread shreds.


    This is the level of my maths though.



  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    Man these are all super goodness

    and yes, I got the Fermat joke too.....

    A guy at work hit me with this:

    Dee Dee Ramone took an infinite amount of drugs and now he's infinitely dead.
    I'm thinking this is a little too hard to hit an 11 year old with, but life's hard lessons are coming at some point, may as well be at 11.

    So now I got home, told him this and he's been on the web googling images of DeeDee's, Joey's and Johnny's graves. And let me tell you, Johhny's memorial ROCKS big time.

  • young_creamyoung_cream 540 Posts
    Where's Sun Ra when we need him?
  • SPlDEYSPlDEY Vegas 3,375 Posts
    When I was in 5th grade we watched The Never Ending Story. Then the teacher hit us with this.

    If the story equals infinity, the nothing = 0. What does Atreyu, the childlike empress and Bastian represent?



    - spidey
  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    When I was in 5th grade we watched The Never Ending Story. Then the teacher hit us with this.

    If the story equals infinity, the nothing = 0. What does Atreyu, the childlike empress and Bastian represent?



    - spidey

    er...two snakes eating each other's tails?
  • pacmanpacman 1,114 Posts
    This thread shreds.


    This is the level of my maths though.


    I'm so glad my dad's not home....I'd have to explain why I'm laughing so hard at work.
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