Mathematicians have just discovered a new infinity, one that doesn’t follow any of the rules of mathematics. It’s so strange, it could change how we understand logic, numbers, and even the universe itself.
In this video, University of Oxford physicist Abi James (@popculturescientist) takes us on a tour of the infinity ladder, a rung-by-rung guide to the largest numbers possible. And even finds those mathematicians who want to destroy infinity altogether.
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Learn more ➤ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2489813-why-mathematicians-want-to-destroy-infinity-and-may-succeed/
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00:00 Introduction
01:38 Hilbert’s infinite hotel
06:17 What is infinity?
08:29 The infinity ladder
11:57 Exacting and ultra-exacting cardinals
13:13 Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory
15:33 The Hereditarily Ordinal Definable (HOD) conjecture
16:46 The ultrafinitists.
19:59 Is the universe finite?
