I considered deleting the post, but this seems more cowardly than just admitting I was wrong. But TIL something!

  • deo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1·
    9 months ago

    It’s like arguing that a kilogram of feathers weighs less than a kilogram of bowling balls because the scale goes up less for every feather I put on the scale compared to every bowling ball I put on the scale.

    I’m arguing that infinity bowling balls weighs more than infinity feathers, though

    • Breve@pawb.social
      1·
      9 months ago

      Try thinking of it like this: If I have an infinite amount of feathers, I can balance a scale that has any number of bowling balls on it. Even if there was an infinite number of bowling balls on the other side, I could still balance it because I also have infinite feathers that I can keep adding until it balances. I don’t need MORE than infinite feathers just because there’s infinite bowling balls. In the same way if my scale had every rational number on one side I could add enough even numbers to the other side to make it balance, but if I had all the irrational numbers on one side of the scale then I would never have enough rational numbers to make it balance out even though they are also infinite.