Sizes of Infinity

Sven GeierI
4a40898a seeable

Taught by Paul Salomon

Paul is a math nerd living in Brooklyn.  He's also a juggler, musician, mathematical artist, and father-to-be from Saint Louis. He teaches math to grades 5-12 at Saint Ann's School, and he's thankful to be done with his Masters. Now he can really learn some stuff.

Blogs:
Lost in Recursion
Math Munch

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To infinity and beyond? Really? I thought infinity was as big as it gets.  How can anything be bigger than infinite? Shouldn't ∞ +1= ∞ What about ∞ x ∞? Is that like ∞2? What about ∞∞? This is getting weird. Countable? Uncountable? Are there really different sizes of infinity?

YES! Some infinities are bigger than others! But don't worry if you're confused. This class is for anyone, and it's meant to get a little spooky. Humans have been playing around with matters of the infinite since the ancient Greeks, but the most amazing discoveries have only come out in the last 200 years or so. So get ready to dig in to some incredible modern mathematics.

We'll spend the night working through the ideas of Georg Cantor, the father of modern set theory. We'll reexamine the concepts of number and size, and head off towards the infinite, where careful analysis will light the way. We'll develop a real way to measure infinite sets. If you want to sit around and discuss some groovy math, then this is the class for you! 

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