Can there be bigger and smaller infinities?

Infinity is a powerful concept. There are actually many different sizes or levels of infinity; some infinite sets are vastly larger than other infinite sets. The theory of infinite sets was developed in the late nineteenth century by the brilliant mathematician Georg Cantor.

Can infinities be different sizes?

As German mathematician Georg Cantor demonstrated in the late 19th century, there exists a variety of infinities—and some are simply larger than others. Take, for instance, the so-called natural numbers: 1, 2, 3 and so on.

What is the meaning of some infinities are bigger than others?

Augustus explains that within a single minute there are an infinite number of possibilities. Anything can happen in that minute, essentially. When he says that “some infinities are bigger than other infinities,” what he is trying to say that even though his life was not a long one, it was still its own infinity.

Who proved that some infinities are bigger than others?

Some Infinities Are Larger Than Others: The Tragic Story of a Math Heretic. You can’t get any bigger than infinite, right? Well, kind of. Late in the 19th century, German mathematician Georg Cantor showed that infinite comes in different types and sizes.

Is infinity bigger than infinity?

No. Infinity can never be smaller or larger then infinity. Infinity is not a number. It is a size, a manyness.

What are the different infinities?

Three main types of infinity may be distinguished: the mathematical, the physical, and the metaphysical. Mathematical infinities occur, for instance, as the number of points on a continuous line or as the size of the endless sequence of counting numbers: 1, 2, 3,….

Is there infinity bigger than infinity?

Sets that have the same size as the set of natural numbers are called ‘countably infinite’. There is more than one ‘infinity’—in fact, there are infinitely-many infinities, each one larger than before!