Originally posted by Gilly
Of course you can, and thats what we're doing.
Philosophically *or* mathematically I have no problems with using infinity as a construct, in the same way that I have no problems using zero or Pi. I have no problems using the set of natural numbers, which was a contrivance by mathematicians to make things easier to count.
I have no problems using negative numbers (after all, how can you have a negative amount of something?) but mathematics becomes quite difficult if you do have problems with them.
Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are all mathematical constructs that serve to simplify our understanding of the universe.
Calculus is used absolutely everywhere - calculations of volume, mass, velocity, acceleration. To prove that calculus actually works, relies on constructs such as infinity and zero. Calculus is itself a convenience.
Our understanding of the universe is based around conveniences. For some, God is a convenient way to explain how and why things work. As humans we create these conveniences in an attempt to explain things we know (from experimentation) to be true. Infinity is just one such convenience for mathematicians.
It may one day be proven that infinity is not consistent, and has no place in our understanding of the universe. But until that happens, we must make these assumptions and use these conveniences otherwise we will not move forward. We *need* people to challenge the assumptions we make, but we also need them to provide solid arguments as to why the construct is flawed. Just saying "I don't like it" isn't good enough. As yet, nobody has come up with a good alternative to infinity to explain the things we have observed to hold true (such as calculus).
