To Infinity and Beyond
In the first chapter of “To Infinity and Beyond: Journeys of the mind and spirit” by Kent A. Bessey talks
about the idea of Infinity. Apparently for a very long time the idea of infinity has fascinated many people.
He talks about Gregor Cantor, and his discoveries concerning the theory of infinity. Cantor came to the
conclusion that Infinity had to do with sets of numbers. Because a set of numbers is different than having
to work with actual numbers he was able to show how it is that numbers were able to continue on
forever, or infinitely. I am not completely sure that I understand this chapter of the book, or that I really
understand the idea of infinity but I will try to explain it the best that I can. Cantor explained that he
could explain how half of a pie is as much as a whole pie. I did not quite understand this. But he
explained that for every set of numbers there was a corresponding set of number which would continue
on forever. Gregor Cantor “concluded that the set of positive even integers {2, 4, 6, 8, . . .} has the same
