Is ∞ odd or even?
Is ∞ odd or even?
This question popped into my head yesterday, and had already been asked and answered nicely on math.stackexchange. I liked Qiaochu Yuan's answer the best...
math.stackexchange.com/a/49045/300001
...as well as the related question/answer he linked to, "Is infinity a number?"
math.stackexchange.com/questions/36289/is-infinity-a-number
Great reading. I find questions like this so interesting because they take some concept in one context and try to meaningfully extend it to another context.
http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/49034/is-infinity-an-odd-or-even-number#
This question popped into my head yesterday, and had already been asked and answered nicely on math.stackexchange. I liked Qiaochu Yuan's answer the best...
math.stackexchange.com/a/49045/300001
...as well as the related question/answer he linked to, "Is infinity a number?"
math.stackexchange.com/questions/36289/is-infinity-a-number
Great reading. I find questions like this so interesting because they take some concept in one context and try to meaningfully extend it to another context.
http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/49034/is-infinity-an-odd-or-even-number#
I'm surprised to learn that there's a nice, meaningful and intuitive answer to that question! Thanks Roice Nelson!
ReplyDeleteI agree this is a great answer for cardinal numbers, but one of the other answers for ordinal numbers is also very good (and reaches a different conclusion).
ReplyDeleteI did anticipate much of Qiaochu Yuan's answer, but now that you've made me actually read it, Richard Green, I'm glad I did! Thanks to both of you.
ReplyDeleteThe other question, "is oo even?" caused my intuition to rattle like "what's arg(0)?!" so I had to look. JDH's answer quickly silenced my confusion, and boy - that felt good! Supersonic insight pleasure.