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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates
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To: 100cfm who wrote (33630)10/24/2000 10:44:26 AM
From: Tom Chwojko-Frank  Read Replies (1) of 54805
 
OT: Doesn't infinity infer no ending or specific point in time or space so when you refer to positive and negative infinity as the same point on a sphere I'm just wondering how that can be.

It depends on the space you're talking about. Imagine the number line (infinite in both directions), then add a circle touching the line at the point labeled zero.

Now pick a number. Draw a line from the top of the circle to the number you picked. You can now associate that point on the circle with that number. Smaller numbers are spread apart on the circle, while the larger numbers bunch up. If you keep going out the number line and look at the corresponding point on the "number circle" you'll notice that you get closer and closer to the top of the circle, but never reach it (and the same goes for large negative numbers). So that leaves the point at the top of the circle unlabeled. What should we call it? Infinity! But is it positive or negative? Yes (both)!

So the number circle is a space where positive and negative infinity are the same. Other spaces they are not. It's however you define the space. Some spaces don't have an infinite point.

So in the end, "infinity" is often a label for an ill-defined point (or points) in some space that is usually in the same direction as large numbers or distances.

Tom CF

P.S. I really wish I had a chalkboard right now.
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