Debate Does infinity really exist?

[PaulaJedi]

Take a glass ball. Smash it. No longer infinite.

 

[Einstein]

Take a glass ball. Smash it. No longer infinite.

I still don't see your point. You changed the conditions for infinity in a circle. Are you trying to say circles don't exist?

 

[PaulaJedi]

Take a glass ball. Smash it. No longer infinite.

I still don't see your point. You changed the conditions for infinity in a circle. Are you trying to say circles don't exist?

Ok, someone clarified something for me. The circle may be infinite, but it is not eternal. Once the circle is destroyed, it is no longer a circle so infinity wouldn't be an issue anyway. Just one way to look at it, I guess.

 

[Harte]

Take a glass ball. Smash it. No longer infinite.

I still don't see your point. You changed the conditions for infinity in a circle. Are you trying to say circles don't exist?

Ok, someone clarified something for me. The circle may be infinite, but it is not eternal. Once the circle is destroyed, it is no longer a circle so infinity wouldn't be an issue anyway. Just one way to look at it, I guess.

Except here you are mixing two ideas.

What you are saying is that circles don't "last."

However, the ideal circle is infinite in a different way than just existing for an infinite amount of time.

Not that I would call a circle infinite anyway, in the context of the thread topic. A circle is a set of points and anytime you have a set of points containing what's called the "Real"numbers (the rational numbers and the irrational numbers together,) you technically have an infinite set, since there is always space between numbers where you can fit more numbers.

But a circle is also bound, in that it can't contain points that don't lie on the curve making the circle.

So it's an infinite bounded set.

That's not what you are thinking of when you ask "Does infinity really exist," though it is a legitimate form of infinity.

Harte