The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and EndlessFor a thousand years, infinity has proven to be a difficult and illuminating challenge for mathematicians and theologians. It certainly is the strangest idea that humans have ever thought. Where did it come from and what is it telling us about our Universe? Can there actually be infinities? Is matter infinitely divisible into ever-smaller pieces? But infinity is also the place where things happen that don't. All manner of strange paradoxes and fantasies characterize an infinite universe. If our Universe is infinite then an infinite number of exact copies of you are, at this very moment, reading an identical sentence on an identical planet somewhere else in the Universe. Now Infinity is the darling of cutting edge research, the measuring stick used by physicists, cosmologists, and mathematicians to determine the accuracy of their theories. From the paradox of Zeno’s arrow to string theory, Cambridge professor John Barrow takes us on a grand tour of this most elusive of ideas and describes with clarifying subtlety how this subject has shaped, and continues to shape, our very sense of the world in which we live. The Infinite Book is a thoroughly entertaining and completely accessible account of the biggest subject of them all–infinity. |
Contents
chapter two Infinity Almost and Actual Fictitious and Factual | |
chapter three Welcome to the Hotel Infinity | |
Other editions - View all
The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless John D. Barrow No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
accelerating actual infinities argued argument Aristotle Aristotle’s astronomical become believe Big Crunch bigger black hole bubble C.S. Lewis centre complete constants of Nature contain cosmic cosmological cosmologists countable created curved dark matter decimal Earth Einstein’s theory energy eternal eventually everything example exist expansion Figure finite future galaxies geometry Georg Cantor God’s gravity guest happen helium-4 horizon Hotel Infinity human idea imagine infinite number infinite Universe infinity machine inflation inflationary universe J.D. Barrow Kronecker laws of Nature Leopold Kronecker living forever London look Luca Ronconi mathematicians mathematics means Mixmaster Universe motion move never never-ending Newton’s observations particles philosopher physical infinities physicists planets possible potential prediction problem properties quantum radiation sequence simple simulated realities singularity space speed of light stars super-tasks surface Theory of Everything things topology Universe’s visible Universe whole numbers Zeno’s zero