Abstract
In Mayan mathematics, zero is supposed to be, in some sense, equal
to infinity. At first glance, while this statement may have a deep philosophical
meaning, it does not seem to make much mathematical sense.
In this paper, we show, that this statement may be made mathematically
reasonable. Specifically, on a real line, it is often useful to consider
both −∞ and +∞ as a single infinity. When we deal with very small
and very large numbers, it makes sense to use floating point representation,
i.e., in effect, consider logarithms of the original values. In terms of
logarithms, the original value 0 corresponds to −∞, while the original
infinite value corresponds to +∞. When we treat both possible values
−∞ and +∞ as a single infinity, we thus treat the original values 0 and
∞ as similar.
AbstractIn Mayan mathematics, zero is supposed to be, in some sense, equalto infinity. At first glance, while this statement may have a deep philosophicalmeaning, it does not seem to make much mathematical sense.In this paper, we show, that this statement may be made mathematicallyreasonable. Specifically, on a real line, it is often useful to considerboth −∞ and +∞ as a single infinity. When we deal with very smalland very large numbers, it makes sense to use floating point representation,i.e., in effect, consider logarithms of the original values. In terms oflogarithms, the original value 0 corresponds to −∞, while the originalinfinite value corresponds to +∞. When we treat both possible values−∞ and +∞ as a single infinity, we thus treat the original values 0 and∞ as similar.
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