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Thomas pfp
Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
Is there *any actual example* of infinity in physics? I’m reading about Ramanujan’s summation method to assign a value to a divergent series (eg, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + … = -1/12), and it seems to me that *every time* infinity shows up in equations, it’s nature’s way of telling physicists that their model is wrong
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Andrew🎩🔵
@andsor.eth
the closest actual examples are electron's magnetic moment and some things from quantum field theory, but nothing hard proven yet 😵‍💫
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Chaos 🎩
@multifractal.eth
However, in physics infinity is a valuable tool. Also, we have to able to distinguish between actual infinity and potential infinity. Questions of the universe size still challenging.
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Chaos 🎩
@multifractal.eth
There are two main reasons: 1- Actually, physics relies on observation & measurements to understand the world. Also, our instrument and knowledge only allow us to interact with finite quantities. 2- When mathematical models with infinity terms used in physics, it often indicate a limitation of the model itself.
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John Camkiran
@johncamkiran
No there is not. Actually there’s a school of mathematians who don’t believe in things like infinity and real numbers: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finitism
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