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Zero Zero is not a number. Zero is the absence of any value or number. It was the last of the decimal digits to be established in Western systems. You can count to zero by not counting. Zero has more value in philosophy than in mathematics, it's not just a place holder. Zero presents a distinction in philosophy between something and nothing, and allows for the square of opposition to take form. Zero is required for the law non-contradiction. Zero is the absence of any given subject as regarding the respective predicate. Zero is the sum total of all of the quantitative forces in the universe. Id est, if you were to put a numerical value on every force, motion and energy, and so long as objective quantities were used, the sum total number would innevitably result in zero. This is confirmed in physics through the various conservation laws. This presents a logical dissonance with contemporary empiricism, leading innevitably to nihilism. |
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Primes A prime number is one that can only be divided evenly by itself and one. Examples of this include 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, ... These numbers play an important role in contemporary cryptography as well as in the natural world. An important characteristic of Prime numbers is that despite what would seem reasonable, there are in fact an infinite number of primes. This was proved by the Greek mathematician Euclid. It was also demonstrated by the Greek mathematicians that there is no known sequence to which prime numbers appear - they are sometimes found very close, and other times with large gaps between them. the first 10,000 prime numbers The biggest prime to date: 909,526 digits Another large prime: 420,921 digits The largest known primes: 5,000 primes. The largest known even prime [The whole thing] probably the biggest possible |
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Googolplex: The american mathematician Edward Kasner once asked his nine-year-old nephew to invent a name for a very large number, ten to the power of one hundred; and the boy called it a googool. He thought this was a number to overflow people's minds, being bigger than anything that can ever be put into words. Another mathematician then shot back with googolplex, and defined it to be 10 to the power of googol. A "googolplex," is sometimes hard to properly define or even conceive of. After all, a googool is simply 1 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000, or (10^100) other than being annoying large... this is hardly something to overflow people's minds. However, 10^(googool) is just about impossible to adequately explain (unless of course your a lame astrophysicist with nothing better to do). This is truly an overflow to people's minds and to my calculator (and even my computer). Even with approximately 8 billion bytes of data storage I currently have access to, this doesn't even come comparably close to being able to write out one googolplex. 8 billion bytes of data storage is roughly (10^9.9 bytes), a googool only requires 101 bytes to spell out, a googolplex would require at least 10^100 bytes. Even if we could compress this to just 1% it's original size it would necessitate 10^98 bytes. If we could compress it to .0001% its original size it would require 10^94 bytes of information. Basically, just to write out a googolplex it would require one googoolbyte of disk space. So the point is, you can download billions of digits of pi and e, but don't expect to see a googolplex any time soon. |
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Infinity Infinity is not a number. Infinity is defined as either an endless cycle or an eternal limit. It is impossible to count or write out or in anyway express infinity through linear examples. Like zero, infinity plays an important role in philosphy. Infinity brings forth the ontological argument and further defines that according to the rules of logic and reason, there must be something infinite. There are four possibilities concerning the universe and it's finitude: All is eternal None is eternal Some is eternal Some is not eternal 'None is eternal,' fails the test of logic in the following way: If none is eternal, than everything is finite. If everything is finite, then everything had a beginning, if everything had a beginning than being would have to come from non-being. Being can not come from non-being by the law of non-contradiction (and a minute amount of common sense). Since 'None is eternal,' is intrinsically false, its logical opposite 'Some is eternal,' is necessarily true. This says that at least something must be eternal. |