Re: virus: Real World?

zaimoni@ksu.edu
Mon, 20 Jan 1997 10:54:29 -0600 (CST)


On Mon, 6 Jan 1997 jonesr@gatwick.geco-prakla.slb.com wrote:

[CLIP]

> Yep, but it must be remembered that oo is not a number, it is a representation
> of a number so huge that it cannot be written easily. Therefore, the above
> equation /is/ true.

I wish.

I am aware of three different types of infinities, in my work. None of
them denote what you are talking about.

About the type we're *trying* to play with here:

oo is *not* a real number, it is a nonnumeric element devised to be an upper
bound to any real number [in particular, it violates the Archimedean
principle for real numbers]. It is designed to emulate the behavior of
arbitrarily large numbers in calculations. The arithmetic failures when
dealing with oo result from ambiguous results with arbitrary large
numbers in these calculations.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/ Towards the conversion of data into information....
/
/ Kenneth Boyd
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