Is infinity an odd or even number? (2011)

Post by scotteric » Tue, May 02, 2023, 7:32 PM UTC

aaronharnly wrote: post #99

hammyhavoc wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had it explained at a very early age as "three lots of three", and to imagine it like three boxes of three ice-creams. Treating the multiplication symbol as one would to indicate quantity in a list, thus calculating how many ice-creams there are.

Found the Brit! As an American I’d never heard the “lots of __” phrasing until I watched Numberblocks (a British show) with my kid…

Post by throwawaymaths » Tue, May 02, 2023, 7:34 PM UTC

alexb_ wrote: post #12

warent wrote: post #10

In my experience with children, one of the easiest-to-grasp concepts of infinity is provided by the transfinite ordinals, since it can be viewed as a continuation of the usual counting manner of children, but proceeding into the transfinite: 1,2,3,⋯,ω,ω+1,ω+2,⋯,ω+ω=ω⋅2,ω⋅2+1,⋯,ω⋅3,⋯,ω2,ω2+1,⋯,ω2+ω,⋯⋯ Presumably this person has no experience with 6 year olds? This explanation is horrendous haha

No it isn't. If you ask a child what comes after infinity, "Infinity + 1" is pretty much the default answer. Any kid who knows multiplication knows "Infinity + Infinity" is the same as "Infinity Times Two". The answer of "Infinity TIMES Infinity" is also popular for kids to say when they know a number bigger than their friend (who just proclaimed infinity is the largest number).

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 02, 2023, 7:35 PM UTC

Post by logifail » Tue, May 02, 2023, 7:40 PM UTC

areyousure wrote: post #147

warent wrote: post #10

In my experience with children, one of the easiest-to-grasp concepts of infinity is provided by the transfinite ordinals, since it can be viewed as a continuation of the usual counting manner of children, but proceeding into the transfinite: 1,2,3,⋯,ω,ω+1,ω+2,⋯,ω+ω=ω⋅2,ω⋅2+1,⋯,ω⋅3,⋯,ω2,ω2+1,⋯,ω2+ω,⋯⋯ Presumably this person has no experience with 6 year olds? This explanation is horrendous haha

> Presumably this person has no experience with 6 year olds? In case anyone is curious, this person has experience teaching children mathematics. For example, on his blog, we have http://jdh.hamkins.org/math-for-six-year-olds/ http://jdh.hamkins.org/math-for-seven-year-olds-graph-colori... http://jdh.hamkins.org/math-for-eight-year-olds/ http://jdh.hamkins.org/math-for-nine-year-olds-fold-punch-cu... The most recent…

Post by mytailorisrich » Tue, May 02, 2023, 7:41 PM UTC

warent wrote: post #10

In my experience with children, one of the easiest-to-grasp concepts of infinity is provided by the transfinite ordinals, since it can be viewed as a continuation of the usual counting manner of children, but proceeding into the transfinite: 1,2,3,⋯,ω,ω+1,ω+2,⋯,ω+ω=ω⋅2,ω⋅2+1,⋯,ω⋅3,⋯,ω2,ω2+1,⋯,ω2+ω,⋯⋯ Presumably this person has no experience with 6 year olds? This explanation is horrendous haha