If infinity is the highest possible number, is 2 closer to infinity than 1? Why or why not?

Sep 30, 2020
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Short answer: 1 times 0 is 0, 2 times 0 is 0 but 1 isn’t 2. It’s the same thing.
For a long answer, take this example:
You have a list of all positive integers. How long would this list be? You’d always go on to the next integer; if you are at 2000 integers, you can increase the amount of integers to 2001, and so on. This list would of course be infinitely long.
Now we’re going to take a list of all positive EVEN integers. Would this list be smaller, longer or just as long as the previous list?
The answer is: it’d be just as long. For example, if you had the numbers from 1 all the way up to 1000 in the first list, you can always use all the EVEN numbers from 2 to 2000 to have a list of the same length. This means that 2 times infinity is the same as one infinity.
Now back to your question. If 1/0 equals infinity, then 2/0 would be the same as 2 times 1/0, which would be the same as 2 times infinity, but 2 times is one, so that’s why 1/0 is infinity, 2/0 is infinity but 1 is not 2.
 
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Mar 6, 2020
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Because infinity isn't a number, all numbers are equally distant from it because they still have an infinite amount between them and infinity. 1, 2, 308475023475485120349257102, 384.2284534, they're all the same to infinity.
 
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Nov 13, 2020
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The answer seems quite simple. Since infinity travels in both directions, regardless off what number you start with the distance from said number, out to infinity will always be the same. Starting with 1 or 5 or 250 loses all relevance. Maybe theoretically, if you begin at 2 and add infinity bidirectionally, in one direction maybe you are closer to something, but, at 1, you are closer, equally, when adding the portion of infinity travelling in the opposite direction.
 

efarina96

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All experience exists relative to infinity. 2 is greater than one relative to our understanding of the universe, in which we use mathematical integers to give meaning to our finite perception. Suppose I say that I have ten fingers. Most of us perceive that as a simple definitive statement and move on. But what is meant by "fingers"? If I attempt measure each one to an infinite level of precision, I will find that I can spend the rest of my life attempting to use math to describe my fingers perfectly, when it is not possible. I can measure my thumb and say it is exactly 2 inches, but an inch is just a relative unit of space, and all space is both infinitely great and infinitely small. I can measure my thumb to the nearest nanometer, or I can measure it in terms of light-years, but in truth any measurement is relative, arbitrary, and imprecise by nature, because my mind is not infinite. Given a drink from the fountain of youth, I can dedicate all of my energy to contriving more and more perfect ways of measuring the length or width of my finger, and I will never achieve perfect precision. So what seems like less or more to you, is simply relative infinity.
 

efarina96

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That's unfair. He had a genuine question, and it was answered. How else can he understand the concept if not by asking?
David David's unfortunately seems to have come to this forum in the interest of behaving as a troll. While I welcome his participation in conversation it is not worth dignifying his trolling with a response, some advice that I myself clearly need to take to heart. Thank you for stepping up to defend the initial poster, who it seems to me as you said was simply posing an interesting and legitimate question.
 
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