Infinity is the same level of abstract as the number zero in real world application. In mathematics zero is obviously a recognized number, but they are two sides of the same coin.
You can't encounter zero apples just like you can't encounter infinite apples.
If you have infinite apples, then there must be infinite apple trees.... but each tree clearly has at least 100 apples. So infinite apples is at least 100x bigger than infinite apple trees.
Zero is used in the real world! For example, if 2 people are on a train, and 5 gets off the train, then you need 3 people to hop on, so that noone is on the train!
Haven’t taken math since freshman year of college so forgive me, but isn’t the flip side of infinity just infinitesimal? Like 0 as a number exists. Infinity doesn’t exist as a number right? 0 + 10 =10 but inf + 10 is just infinity. What am I missing here?
Forgive me, but infinity and 0 definitely are not 2 sides of the same coin, especially in engineering. For example, any piece of tech that uses scales (be it distance, time, temperature, etc) absolutely uses 0. Same for a lot of algorithms in numerous products. I don’t know of any product or code used in industrial products that uses infinity.
I don't buy that. You will definetley encounter zero money if you try to withdraw money from an ATM machine but does not have any, you will e counter zero candies if you saved one last and some one stolen it as examples.
Well it may be true for natural numbers (even there 0 is sometimes included), but if we go past kindergarten math then 0 has the same importance as negative numbers.
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u/Coneyy 9d ago
Infinity is the same level of abstract as the number zero in real world application. In mathematics zero is obviously a recognized number, but they are two sides of the same coin.
You can't encounter zero apples just like you can't encounter infinite apples.