Infinite Misconception

The concept of infinity is often misinterpreted. Because we humans live in a finite world, anything that is conceptually too large to think about gets labelled as infinity.

For example let’s say I had a regular 8.5X11 piece of paper in a 10 trillion meter squared room. How many different positions could I place that paper in. The answer is not infinity because, while the number would be indescribably large, the fact that I am in a finite room, means that one day I will havev exhausted all options.

 One would almost expect ‘laypeople’ to make this mistake, but when physics professors do it, you know there’s a problem. Today, my physics professor was talking to a student before class and I was able to overhear. I’m not sure what exactly he was talking about, but he mentioned something about a “nearly infinitely large sheet of paper.”

 Something that is ‘near’ or ‘almost’ infinity means that it is still not infinity and that it is finite. It may be really big (or really small) but it is not infinity. I hope my professor was just using this term as a matter of speech, and didn’t imply the physically impossible by him language.

 Uh oh.

Of course, this is physically impossible. Something cannot be of ‘near’ infinite size, because that implies that infinity is a definable size. If it has a definable size than it is finite. Something that is ‘approaching infinity’ is ok, because it implies that there is no upper bound limit. But something that is ‘near’ infinity implies that there is a definible end to its size, which precludes ability to be classified as ‘infinity.’

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