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0 X Infinity = 1

Crash: Mom, do you believe zero time infinity equals one?

Me: No. Zero times anything is zero.

Crash: Gosh! NO! Listen, one over infinity is zero right? [1/&infin=0].

Me: Um, no, one over infinity is one over infinity. [1/&infin = 1/&infin].

Crash: But think about it. Say you have infinity miles to go. And you walk one mile. You still have infinity to go, right?

Me:...uh, yeah....

Crash: So, it's the same as if you've gone zero miles. Right!?

Me: Wait, wait, wait...numerically, I've gone one mile, even if I have infinity to go.

Crash: Numerically? NUMERICALLY?! Stop thinking like that and really think. Sheesh! Now, going one mile out of infinity is the same as going zero miles.

Me: But my legs are tired and it's taken me ten minutes. You can't call that nothing.

Crash: Anyway, so yes, it's zero because it made no difference in going infinity. It's nothing. Zero. You still have infinity to go. You haven't gotten anywhere. Get it?

Me: Fine.

Crash: So one over infinity is zero. Then one over infinity (also known as one infinity-eth) times infinity is one, right? [1/&infin X &infin/&infin = &infin/&infin ² = &infin/&infin (because &infin ² is only &infin after all) and &infin/&infin = 1]

Me: Um, okay.

Crash: So zero [1/&infin = 0] times infinity is one. [1/&infin = 0 as "shown" above, 0 x &infin/&infin =1 as shown above.]

Sigh. It's hard having a son obsessed with &infin .
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Kyle Willard said…
That is absolutely fantastic! I love your little Einstein!

Chantele
9:44 AM
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