Think of the smallest number greater than 0...

[o_O]

To add to thread, I think the significance is that there are different 'amounts' of infinity, but what that means was never explained to me. I just perceived it as 'whoa, brain overload', or 'paradigm shift'

You should read up on the significance of the aleph. The alephs are used to describe the cardinality of infinite sets. Think of it like this:

The real numbers lie on a line, with infinity possible divisions, which results in an infinite number of numbers in any subset of the line. The complex numbers, however, are an infinite set of ordered pairs, or instead of an infinite set lying on a line, it's a grid of infinite size extending in two dimensions.
Take some <i>n</i> from the real numbers, and some <i>m > n</i> also from the real numbers. You now have a set <i>{ n > x > m | n, m in R }</i>. For every x, there is an infinte number of correlating values in the complex numbers C, like its own real number line.
So in effect, assume the set of all real numbers has some size <i>p</i>; its cardinality is <i>p*1</i>. By corrollary, the complex numbers have cardinality <i>p²</i>. Which set is bigger? Infinity 1 or infinity 2? Moreover, which set is bigger if you consider that both sets are infinite in size, but by definition the real numbers are a subset of the complex numbers?

[Fonzie]

/b/ divided by 0.

It is no longer with us.

[Tavrobel]

/b/ divided by 0.

It is no longer with us.

Actually, it would be equal to 1, Fonz.

I like Limits. Don't you?

[Fonzie]

/b/ divided by 0.

It is no longer with us.

Actually, it would be equal to 1, Fonz.

I like Limits. Don't you?

Okay then it must of divided by a prime number.

[Nominus Experse]

Mathematics amaze me, and yet at the same time, cause me great pain as I am abruptly reminded of how atrocious my math skills are (Math 103 smurf YEAH!)

[Rye]

What is this, asymptotes, or something? A line (and therefore values) going on forever but never hitting 0, if the asymptote is zero? D:

[NeoCracker]

I know a bit about that whole 1 = .999......, but not the others.

[NeoTifa]

i hate my life >.<

i love math, but calculus is proof that satan exists

[Peegee]

What is this, asymptotes, or something? A line (and therefore values) going on forever but never hitting 0, if the asymptote is zero? D:

More like an arc. If it doesn't hit the x-axis there's a horizontal Asymptote.

Check out that math wolfram page. It should tell you more than I can.

[rubah]

That looks like the hard way to take a limit, to me!

[Tavrobel]

I love math, but and Calculus is proof that Satan exists people give a damn about their brains and are not afraid to use them.

Fixed.

That looks like the hard way to take a limit, to me!

Actually, it's the easy way. People don't have to bother with using it in an equation or finding the derivative of limits as /\X approaches zero. That and, limits are easy stuff. Right behind critical numbers.

[rubah]

Perpetually comparing values in a range over and over in an ever-decreasing interval doesn't sound that easy to me >:[

at least, I think that was the theory part of limits. i kinda did crossword puzzles that day.

[Proxy]

Theorem: all numbers are equal
Proof: choose arbitrary a & b, and let t = a + b. Then
a + b = t
(a + b)(a - b) = t(a - b)
a^2 - b^2 = ta - tb
a^2 - ta = b^2 - tb
a^2 - ta + (t^2)/4 = b^2 - tb + (t^2)/4
(a - t/2)^2 = (b - t/2)^2
a - t/2 = b - t/2
a = b
Therefore, all numbers are the same, and math is pointless.

[Tavrobel]

Therefore, all numbers are the same, and math is pointless.

o shiz i gets teh 0 = 1 halp me plz i thnk i did sumthin rong

Perpetually comparing values in a range over and over in an ever-decreasing interval doesn't sound that easy to me >:[

at least, I think that was the theory part of limits. i kinda did crossword puzzles that day.

I was thinking in terms of the operations and concepts required. Taking 1, and dividing it by 2 continuously until you get an infinitely smaller number is not very complicated, assuming you know what a decimal is.

Really? I was doing Sudoku on Chain Rule day. Best idea ever.

[Chemical]

the class I took was called
"Mathematics in Art"

It wasn't pre-calc and hardly practical, we mostly explored ideas that artists have used over the vast centuries.

For instance, the square root of 2 otherwise known as Phi (explored briefly and non-chalently in David Brown's The Davinci Code) was imployed by many Greek artists and then again during the Rennaisance. It was considered to be the number closest to God and perfection; though it was an irrational number and consequently unacchieavable by man kind it was still considered the scale on which beauty could be compared.