Define Infinity

Infinity is a very, very, very, very big number. Infinity is bigger than any number that she can think of. Infinity is so big of a number that if you subtract any number she can think of from infinity you still get infinity for an answer.

A six year old might grasp this idea. If she doesn't understand this, tell her that many adults don't understand infinity also.

You can tell her, "Well, think of the biggest number and -- HEY, I think Justin Bieber is on TV tonight."

Beiber?...Dude, she's 6 yrs old!

Nice try guys....but infinity can't possibly be a number.

Wait just one darn minute there. Do you want a definition of infinity for a six year old or do want to plum the depths of Georg Cantor's infinite set theory?

Try it the way a woman would understand math. Infinity is a quantity that no matter how much you take from it, ther's always some left. S.M.

It would be so easy to slap you upside the head with that post...but I won't.

What's wrong with that post? Did another garammar mistake or ther's an idiom used by you, half the world away that I should know about and unknowingly used it? I think I've had it with some of you. S.M.

I don't speak for him but I don't think he was wild about your highly and condescending sexist remark

I didn't really care about the remark. I'm not even PC; I just view women differently.

Unintelligent isn't part of it.

Stupid people are all in one category, which is the "stupid" category. I haven't noticed gender playing a significant role.

No worries SM.

If I had a nickel for every one of my rude remarks on here, I could think about retiring.

If I had a nickel for every one of Lyn's rude remarks, I could have retired 10 years ago.

Just a beer driven weekend thread...no harm, no foul.

I would venture that after subtracting infinity minus 1, you still have an infinite amount.

Another way would be you couldn't spend an infinite amount of money, even at Nieman Marcus.

I still gave you a G.A.

I want your personal definition of infinity.

It's way bigger than anything she can imagine.

Infinity is like when you need to go poop really bad but someone else is on the toilet taking their time because the know you are in a hurry.

That's infinity from a 6 year olds perspective.

Funny story, but she ain't buying it.

So much for me being smart....it's over.

Next time she needs to go make her wait then ask her if she understands how long infinity is.

My wife and I just got back from eating out in town and I needed the bathroom. She got there first so I distracted myself with a quick look around CR4 and found this thread.

It sure felt like infinity to me.

Don't tell us you couldn't go outside. I know you better than that!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad to see you finally took her out. I hope it was a class place, not some greasy spoon.

We went to Denny's and it was her choice.

I try to get us out about once every week or two to eat and go to a movie. Most of the time she has an excuse not to go at the last minute because I make her choose where we are eating and what movie we will go to since I am driving and paying.

Last night was to be supper and a movie but she barely made it through supper without falling asleep.

Did you make her mow the back 40 acres again?��

We're getting there. Right now, she does the steering. Once her legs get long enough to reach the pedal, my grass cutting days are over.

Be very, very careful.

There are a number of very horrible accidents happening that way where a child falls and is consumed by the mower.

It's not going to happen AH. By the time she's old enough to cut grass, she will have no interest in riding on the mower.

She also told me that if we got a fish, she would feed it every day and clean the tank.

She also told me that if we got a dog, she would feed and water him every day.

Guess who gets to do all of that?

I'm not gonna hold my breath for the day she wants to cut the lawn.

Not what I meant. Before I moved down here, a somewhat local grandfather was cutting the lawn with the kid on his lap.

The mower hit a bump or something that caused the kid fall, and was killed by the mower blades.

The death is tragic enough, and it is actually not all that uncommon of an accident, but I just can't imagine the pain that grandfather must be living with.

Infinite pain...

"...I just can't imagine the pain that grandfather must be living with."

I think you stumbled on an answer.

Serendipitously on topic after all.

Very true for a groan-up, but wouldn't work for a 6-yo.

A groan-up.

Ain't that the truth.

She seems satisfied with the, something that has no end and goes on forever, answer. For now.

In a few years she'll be smarter than me, and she'll have to go find her own answers.

Oh. Yeah, that's rough.

It must have been a pretty small kid.

It never occurred to me to ride her on my lap when she was a toddler, for that exact reason. You have to use your hands for steering, and little ones aren't that stable sitting on your knee. Bad idea.

She rides with me now, but stands up and holds the steering wheel, me in the seat with my legs on either side of her. Flat yard with no real hills.

Despite some of my wild, crazy, dumb posts on here, real life is pretty tame, and as risk free as possible.

Is she asking because she saw the TV commercial? :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZh105_r2Qk

Define infinity? Infinity is an indefinably large quantity.

The mathematical concepts of infinity and Limits as quantities approach infinity can be difficult to understand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_%28mathematics%29

For a 6 year old I'd suggest infinity is a number bigger than anyone can imagine. (see posts #1,#7)

I've got a very smart 6 year old that expects answers. Clear answers...every time.

How did I get so stupid?

You got old! And drunk!

Let me be perfectly clear...

I got drunk first.

Old snuck up on me.

The easiest infinity to understand is probably the whole numbers: 1, 2, 3,... The key is that they never end. Name any, and you can always add one to it, forever.

The formal definition will not help: an infinite set is one that can be put into a one-to-one correspondence with a proper subset of itself.

She doesn't settle for formal definitions, and her queries go beyond math. I'll do the best that I can.

The number of grains of sand on the beach......

I still can't grasp it. Especially in the context of jumping into a spaceship with an infinite fuel supply, shooting off into space in a straight line, and traveling hundreds of billions of light years out, and never hitting the end.

That's right. Now you are starting to understand. Infinity cannot be grasped and held in place. Infinity is always bigger.

Because the number of grains of sand is finite, not infinite.

How about two mirrors on opposite walls?

This is the classic teaching dilemma.
You don't want to lie, but you also need an answer which is understandable.
Even simple questions have difficult answers... I'm always getting asked "how long does it take to make a bow?"

Weeeeeeell, after the tree has had 60 years to grow, you've taken a day to cut and saw it and a year to season it. There's the 40 years experience too..... oh I dunno so I say 50 hours... or maybe it's infinity?
Del (shrugs and slurps tea)

Infinity/ n :-
Time spent by men waiting around in clothes/shoe shops for a lady
Del

The number of times you could go round a circle looking for the end.

[edit] ... or the distance you covered while looking for it.

Yeah, but this can be performed whilst waiting for the missus in the clothes shop
Del

Or indeed while waiting for the teenage daughter to tidy her room (which is the only known time period longer than infinity). But it provides a measure of the time.

Unlimited ice cream and cookies forever.

I told one of mine, many years ago, that if you started to count from one, you could never get to the end, there would always be more to count. It is the largest number that could possibly be.

I used to drive my Dad nuts with questions about the universe. He would get pissed when he couldn't come up with a plausible explanation for something.

Same line of questioning from me, over and over again.

Is the universe finite?

Yes

Really? Is there a wall at the end?

Sort of.

What's on the other side of the wall?

Bed time.

I still ask myself the same questions.

The entire universe can't possibly have an end, but how can that possibly be?

Karma!

you can pick any color you like

tell her to start counting until she passes a googleplex...then count a little more and she'll be in the right neighborhood

is pretty simple, is just something that has no limit.

Yeah, that's what I told her, but I'm not sure that she gets it.

While not perfect, the sand grain analogy would have got her thinking in the right direction. Hand counting each grain of sand on a beach, and then continuing to count all of the grains of sand on all of the beaches.

For now she seems satisfied with, "Something that goes on forever and has no end".

draw a line, a triange and a circle. ask her to show you the start of each and the end. the line is easy, the triangle is a little harder but you can show her a beginning and end. The circle has neither, it goes on forever just like ininity.

This is looking like another endless post.

Why do you say that?

Wait.

How long?

Because of the infinite wisdom around here.

The length of the average GW thread on CR4...

Or maybe a bit better for a 6 year old. Tell her to think of going to school on the first day in September, and thinking of how long it will be to summer holidays. Now tell her to think that she won't actually have them until she graduates from (insert the upper most class level she is capable of understanding). To a 6 year old, that IS infinity.

Tell her to read the thread on breaking up a bathtub.

I would, but it disappeared into a black hole.

You should tell her that she will not be able to understand the concept of infinity until she is a teenager, and to ask you again then.

Teenagers normally have an infinitely better grasp of the concept of infinity, as confirmed by the amount of time they spend in front of a screen (or usually 3-4 screens at the same time!), on Facebook, etc. (in the old days, the amount of time they spent on the phone, that is in the days when they knew how to speak into one), and how much food you provide for them, and how much time and money you spend as their taxi-driver (the list is endless, ie INFINITE !! ). In the unlikely event that she asks you again (in fact she probably won't be talking to you, or if you are lucky, and have a very close relationship, you might get a grunt) you should tell her to ask you again when she is 21.

And if she asks you again, you should ask her to tell you!

Maybe I should tell her to call me when she has her own kids.

Every day is infinite, and 20 years goes by in a minute.

Dear Mr.karamarat,

You can explain INFINITY as ENDLESS. Some example can be given

DHAYANANDHAN.S

She's still at it, and she's not satisfied with any of my answers.

Now she's explaining infinity to me.

Friday on the way home from school, she told me that the simople answer, is that it's a circle.

I didn't have any snappy comebacks, nor could I disagree.

Just how I explained in post #50. It has worked with pretty much most children as an explanation.

True, and she apparently came up with it on her own.

The circle analogy has never worked for me, but I'm not going to get into it with her just yet. Maybe next year.

If you look at a circle as a series of connected dots, there is a finite number of dots.

It has no discernible beginning or end, but neither does a rectangle, triangle or square.

True about the square, triangle and rectangle but to a child the beginning is at a deflection(corner) when you draw or trace it. So the explanation works with younger children.

As per my #25

Yep.

Much better than simply saying "a circle".

I'm impressed that she, (seemingly), came up with it on her own.