No more Infinities?

[xelasnave]

I caught a radio show re the "new" math of infinity.
Interesting points but obvious..you can not double anything to infinity, no matter how large a portion you remove from infinity it still remains infinity...and that folk in the math infinity business had a tendency to go crazy???

alex

[dannat (Daniel)]

in maths is there really infinity?

0.999999 recurring = x 10x = 9.999999

10-1x = 9.999999 - 0.999999 = 9 = 9x 9x/9 = 1

hence divide and x = 1,no such thing as infinite decimals

[avandonk]

I think you will find that the Universe solves this conundrum quite simply by having an inderterminate quantum 'foaminess' at an incredibly short scale so that infinities do not and cannot occur. There is no such thing as ZERO in temperature or any other scalar quantity.

We are just scratching the surface of the possible knowledge.

We can only infer the existence of black holes and nowhere do we need infinities to predict them.

Bert

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by avandonk

I think you will find that the Universe solves this conundrum quite simply by having an inderterminate quantum 'foaminess' at an incredibly short scale so that infinities do not and cannot occur. There is no such thing as ZERO in temperature or any other scalar quantity.

We are just scratching the surface of the possible knowledge.

We can only infer the existence of black holes and nowhere do we need infinities to predict them.

Bert

So I will take that as I take everything else...that I am on the right track
What got me thinking is some of the wild unsupported stuff one comes across...I would like a higher level of reason than that stuff and I am not sure if that is a big ask.
Thanks Bert
alex

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by avandonk

I think you will find that the Universe solves this conundrum quite simply by having an inderterminate quantum 'foaminess' at an incredibly short scale so that infinities do not and cannot occur. There is no such thing as ZERO in temperature or any other scalar quantity.

We are just scratching the surface of the possible knowledge.

We can only infer the existence of black holes and nowhere do we need infinities to predict them.

Bert

I think you'll find that despite that indeterminate nature at the quantum scale of things, that many aspects of quantum theory are shot through full of infinities. That's why the equations of state in these theories are renormalised.... to get rid of (or at least reduce) the infinities.