Big Freeze Rather Than Big Bang

[George Jones]

Not only are infinities extremely important in mathematics, but the mathematician Georg Cantor quantified different levels of infinity. Brilliant, beautiful work.

[symesie04]

As a computer programmer I tend to have a fair bit of maths in the software, and if ever their is an answer that is infinite (which you have to prevent from happening) you get what's called an exception, which basically means the program crashes because the maths break down. It usually means something is wrong with the coding if a maths result is infinite. But then I'm not a mathematician.

The "PHD Guiding" software has a problem in it's maths where it can end up with an infinity answer, which causes it to crash, although I don't think the author knows about it. He wasn't very responsive the last time I pointed him too a couple of bugs in his coding, so haven't bothered since.

Im not surprised he hasnt responded if you told him about the infinity issue! he is probably still pulling his hair out.

Not only are infinities extremely important in mathematics, but the mathematician Georg Cantor quantified different levels of infinity. Brilliant, beautiful work.

Yes there is definately no doubt that infinity is important in mathematics (although to my poor little mind i still struggle to see how one type of infinty can be bigger than another) but that surely is the very reason as to why its not perfect for explaining our universe. And yes i know of those who argue about Fractuals but im not convinced. Yes they work beautifully in mathematics and can be used to model in perfect symetry what we see around us but im just not convinced in the real world that they actually work.

[Tiki]

Infinities are an integral part of virtually all the maths used by scientists and engineers.

Infinities are more easily dealt with by mathematicians and are quite often utilized.

Infinities encounterd by physicists and engineers often mean that an error has been made.

Infinities encountered by life-scientists are more often a consequence of poor arithmetic.

[the1mccloud]

Just remember,Gallileo once came up with heliocentrism,the ludicrous idea that the earth and other planets orbited the sun.

I think it was actually copernicus who introduced a sun centered model of the solar system. Galileo just used a telescope to provide experimental evidence support this theory.

[chrislintott]

Thoughts?

My main thought is that it might be interesting to read the paper they have published, but not so interesting that I'm willing to pay the $25 they are asking.

Is that normal? Are we supposed to support their research by paying to read about their progress?

Blame the journals (there are a lot of people working on fixing this, though).

However, almost every astronomy paper is posted on arxiv.org, sometimes before even being submitted to a journal, and it's free to access.

[chrislintott]

Oops - just seen someone already mentioned the arXiv. Sorry for barging in.

[Treeden]

Oops - just seen someone already mentioned the arXiv. Sorry for barging in.

Hi Chris

Thanks for the help with arXiv, but yes, JulianO beat you to it.

Btw, welcome to the forum! I saw your post in Sir Patricks's thread. It was nice of you to drop by and say hello. Thanks also for your kind words and for the good news about the program in January. I look forward to it.

Good luck for the future.

Rob