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Old 02-03-2011, 01:30 PM
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mjc (Mark)
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Location: Dublin, Ireland
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Different sizes of Infinity

Mathematics is a rich source of counter-intuitive facts.

There are some infinities that are "bigger" than others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinit..._the_continuum

Take the natural numbers (counting numbers - whole numbers) - one can have an infinite number of them.

Now consider the real numbers (those numbers that can have arbitrary decimal precision). There are an infinite number of numbers between 0 and 1 and between 1 and 2 - in fact between any two decimal numbers.

These two infinities are of different scale.

Cantor had real resistance to this idea.

Mark C.
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