A mathematician explains infinity in 5 minutes

Dr. Sophie Calabretto of Macquarie University explained the complex idea of infinity in ABC Science’s Elevator Pitch series, hosted by Angharad Yeo.

Infinity is this concept we use to describe something that doesn’t have a bound… we think of the natural numbers, which are just the counting numbers like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. It’s something bigger than that. So it’s not actually a number, but it’s something a number can tend towards. Nothing ever reaches infinity, it can just get closer to infinity.

She also explained the opposite of infinity. Ironically, all of this was done in a definite amount of time in a confined space and maybe that demonstrates both concepts in their own way.

Stream the video below.

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