How To Count Past Infinity
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as the most accessible introduction to what lies beyond infinity.
What it is
Vsauce's Michael Stevens takes viewers past infinity using transfinite numbers, ordinals and cardinals, with input from mathematician Hugh Woodin. It is a fast-paced, mind-bending tour of different sizes of infinity.
Recommended by 6 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2016 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec okket · 2016-08 · on “Life on the Infinite Farm [pdf]”
My personal favourite to illustrate infinity (as possible) and some math concepts around it is still the video "How To Count Past Infinity" from Vsauce: [this video] "This is math, not science." (~12:30)
Recommends okket · 2016-04 · on “The Man Who Knew Infinity”
Completely offtopic, except for math and title, but highly recommended while waiting for the movie: "How To Count Past Infinity" [this video]
Recommends lasfter · 2016-08 · on “What I learned as a hired consultant to autodidact physicists”
The issue is that there are different infinities. The infinity the parent is talking about, the one that you generally run into in calculus class and the like, is straightforward. The research in the past century was about what happens _past_ infinity, e.g. ordinal numbers. I'm no mathematician either, so I'll stop there before I embarrass myself. The most accessible resource I found was this VSauce video [1]. [1] [this video]
Recommends cjslep · 2017-09 · on “Mathematicians Measure Infinities, Find They’re Equal”
There is one English definition of infinity, but when applied to ordinals ("degrees of freedoms"), you get different mathematical concepts of infinity. Vsauce's explanation is approachable: [this video]
Recommends hawktheslayer · 2018-01 · on “Ask HN: What are fun entertaining YouTube channels/videos you watch in free time?”
VSauce is a science channel which I find both entertaining and educational. Fun and fast paced and often mind-bending. [this video]
Recommends swfsql · 2018-08 · on “How to explain infinity to kids”
(related - and I enjoyed the vibe he put into it): [this video] - Vsauce's "How to Count Past Infinity"
Recommends teh_klev · 2018-08 · on “Absolute Hot”
Thanks for that, I hadnt' bumped into that channel before. After watching this one I watched the one on how to count past infinity....mind suitably blown :) [this video]
Cites okket · 2016-05 · on “Mathematicians Bridge Finite-Infinite Divide”
Related (a bit of Cantor and Hilbert, no direct relation to Ramsey’s theorem): "How To Count Past Infinity" [this video]