Infinity Trivia Quiz

Answer: The number '8'

The Romans sometimes used this symbol to represent 1000, a big number, and this led a mathematician named John Wallis to suggest in 1650 that it should be used as the symbol of infinity. It stuck.

Answer: M C Escher

Escher is well known for his 'impossible' drawings, including staircases which go nowhere and hands drawing each other. Although not a trained mathematician, Escher is accepted to have had an intuitive understanding of the discipline.

Answer: Infinity

There are also infinitely many. You could write any whole number with an even number twice as large alongside. This is called a one-to-one correspondence, and it is important because for any list of numbers with this one-to-one relationship to whole numbers, it can be seen there are infinitely many (and this infinity has the same value).

Answer: Because each move takes proportionally less time

This is known as Zeno's Paradox after Zeno of Elea, a fifth century BC philosopher who proposed many paradoxes on the subject of infinity. Fortunately, this particular one can be refuted, otherwise nothing would ever get done!

Answer: No

No, it isn't. A googolplex is a very, very big number. But it is different in concept to infinity, which is not a number. The remaining numbers can still be put in a one-to-one correspondance with the 'set' of all whole numbers. So you can't be any closer to infinity, as you've still got just as many numbers left to go.

Answer: Aleph0

Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and it is used with a subscript to describe these two kinds of infinity. Other infinities are described Aleph1, Aleph2, and so on. The total number of real numbers might be equal to Aleph1 - but all that is known for sure is that it is at least Aleph1 - it might be more!

Answer: Bernard Bolzano

Born in Prague, Bolzano numbered mathematician and philosopher among his several talents. He wrote in German, with "The Paradoxes of the Infinite" concentrating primarily on set theory.

Answer: Maybe

Scientists are uncertain as to whether time is infinite. It all depends on whether the total mass of the universe is sufficient to drag it all back together in a reversal of the Big Bang, which would effectively end time, or whether the universe will continue expanding, which would mean an infinite amount of time lies ahead.

Answer: Yes, from its effects on nearby things

Yes, the immense gravitational fields surrounding black holes deflect electromagnetic radiation (such as light) passing nearby. This is the only obvious way, as looking straight at one would not reveal it (hence the term 'black'). Anything getting close enough to a black hole to detect it directly would be unable to send any details back to us, as they would be drawn in to the black hole.

Answer: Georg Cantor

The Russian Georg Cantor (1845 - 1918) revolutionised maths by overcoming resistance to investigating infinity. His concepts were so novel that he famously said "I see it, but I don't believe it".