> Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 16:23:00 -0600 > From: Jonathan Scott Duff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > Which Inf is bigger? Inf, or Inf? > > > > You can't know, so it's NaN. > > Maybe I'm just wired wrong, but Inf is the same size as Inf (since > they are the same "value") To me "Inf" is a textual representation of > a value that's larger than all other values. So ... > > Inf == Inf # true > Inf != Inf # false > Inf > Inf # false > Inf < Inf # false > Inf - Inf == 0 # true > Inf + Inf == Inf # true > > But, I'm willing to be educated on the subject. I don't ever use > infinities in code now and I don't think I'm likely to (except perhaps > in lazy list generation).
Look at this. I think it's a pretty good (and interesting) explanation: http://askdrmath.com/library/drmath/view/53370.html > The only infinities of varying sizes that I know of are the alephs, > and they don't apply here. Actually they do. Consider a set with cardinality ℵ₀ (Aleph-null). What's the cardinality if you add one more number to that set? Still ℵ₀, right? Obviously the difference between their cardinal numbers is 1, but they're called the same thing. So you can't really subtract them with any _single_ meaning. Someone correct my if I've got my set theory messed up. Luke
