infinity_2010_upg


infinity_2010_upg, "The Capture of Infinity", a talk about Cantor's development of a consistent theory of infinity, given at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, March 2010.

I have been working on a talk about Cantor's theory of infinity for some time now. I first planned to give this talk to the undergraduate math club at the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, during a visit in November 2009, but my schedule didn't work out. I kept working on the talk with a view to a February workshop at Virginia Tech, to be associated with the Center for Talented Youth, (run through Johns Hopkins University), which would have involved an audience of sixth graders and their parents (!). The idea of having to speak about serious mathematics to such an audience suggested more strongly that I should keep working on the topic of infinity, an engaging subject whose paradoxes can be understood without a great deal of prerequisites. Of course, the CTY workshop has been cancelled, but I continue to work at the notes, thinking I may end up giving this talk at UPG after all, perhaps in March 2010.

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Last revised on 01 February 2024.