Infinity is simply the idea of something that is not finite. This number is a concept that most people are aware of, yet they don’t fully understand the significance of this digit. Infinity is a number that fully represents the idea of something that is truly never ending. Infinity can be found and is used in many aspects of math, even ones that you would have never thought of. Once recognized, infinity became one of the most pondered upon math mysteries that the world has ever seen.
INTRODUCTION If you were told to think of infinity, what would you think of? Would you think of movie references, or the symbol, or a continuous number? Infinity is normally a hard concept for people to comprehend, since most people do not know the actual facts about this number. Granted, when you do know more about this subject, you will realize that infinity is in more parts of your life then you would expect. Infinity is a simple idea: "endless". Most things we know have an end, but infinity does not. [6]
WHAT IS INFINITY? Infinity is simply defined as the idea of something that has no end. This is a hard concept for us to wrap our heads around, so we use other synonyms like “endless” or “boundless”. Due to this number being infinite, people seem to think that infinity is constantly growing; this is not the case. Infinity does not go on and on because it is already fully formed. This number does not do anything, it just is. [6]
IS INFINITY EVEN A REAL NUMBER? Infinity is an interesting topic in the math field, since there is a seemingly never-ending debate about whether or not infinity is actually a number or not. Some sources say that is it just an idea of something without an end and cannot be measured. Others argue that there are countless examples of infinite things; therefore it is a real number.
SO WHEN DO WE USE IT IN MATH? While it is not commonly recognized, infinity is actually a concept used in geometry for a basic purpose – lines. A line is defined as having an infinite length because it goes in both directions without an end. There is also an infinite amount of points in a line. A ray, however, has only one end and a line segment has two definite endpoints. Therefore, this makes a ray and a segment finite. [6] While the fraction ⅓ is a finite number, if it is written as a decimal number (0.3 repeating) it becomes infinite because there is no reason why the 3s should ever stop repeating themselves. [6] The symbol for infinity (∞) is commonly used like a number (although it does not behave like a real number.) For example, we can say that ∞ + 1 = ∞ because when something is originally endless, we can add 1 and it will still remain endless. [6] The most important thing to remember about infinity is that, when x is a real number, -∞ < x < ∞, or “negative infinity is less than any real number, and infinity is greater than any real number.” [6]
INFINITY IN ART Infinity is not just limited to the mathematical part of the world. This idea is commonly used in the art community. Artists have created seamless pieces of art, and photographers are using this concept to their full advantage. One artist in particular, named M C Escher, is very well-known for his artwork with infinite qualities.