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"Empedocles holds that the corporeal elements are four, while all the elements-including those which initiate movement-are six in number; whereas Anaxagoras agrees with Leucippus and Democritus that the elements are infinite."
InfinityWe know by actual observation only a comparatively small part of the w — Infinity
"We know by actual observation only a comparatively small part of the whole universe. I will call this "our neighborhood." Even within the confines of this province our knowledge decreases very rapidly as we get away from our own particular position in space and time. It is only within the solar system that our empirical knowledge extends to the second order of small quantities (and that only for g44 and not for the other gαβ), the first order corresponding to about 10-8. How the gαβ outside our neighborhood are, we do not know, and how they are at infinity of space or time we shall never know. Infinity is not a physical but a mathematical concept, introduced to make our equations more symmetrical and elegant. From the physical point of view everything that is outside our neighborhood is pure extrapolation, and we are entirely free to make this extrapolation as we please to suit our philosophical or aesthetical predilections—or prejudices. It is true that some of these prejudices are so deeply rooted that we can hardly avoid believing them to be above any possible suspicion of doubt, but this belief is not founded on any physical basis. One of these convictions, on which extrapolation is naturally based, is that the particular part of the universe where we happen to be, is in no way exceptional or privileged; in other words, that the universe, when considered on a large enough scale, is isotropic and homogeneous."
Infinity
Infinity
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Infinity is something which is boundless, limitless, or endless. It is denoted by ∞, called the infinity symbol.
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"Ford, there’s an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they’ve worked out."
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"The physicists... always regard the infinite as an attribute of a substance which is different from it and belongs to the class of the so-called elements--water or air or what is intermediate between them. Those who make them limited in number never make them infinite in amount. But those who make the elements infinite in number, as Anaxagoras and Democritus do, say that the infinite is continuous by contact-compounded of the homogeneous parts."
InfinityQuote
"The science of nature is concerned with spatial magnitudes and motion and time, and each of these at least is necessarily infinite or finite, even if some things dealt with by the science are not, e.g. a quality or a point--it is not necessary perhaps that such things should be put under either head. Hence it is incumbent on the person who specializes in physics to discuss the infinite and to inquire whether there is such a thing or not, and, if there is, what it is. The appropriateness to the science of this problem is clearly indicated. All who have touched on this kind of science in a way worth considering have formulated views about the infinite, and indeed, to a man, make it a principle of things."
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"All things were together, infinite both in number and in smallness; for the small too was infinite."
InfinityQuote
"Dans chaque point réel, qui fait une Monade... il y pourroit lire encor tout le passé, et même tout lavenir infiniment infini, puisque chaque moment contient une infinité de choses , et quil y a une infinité de momens dans chaque partie du temps, et une infinité dheures, dannées, de siecles, deônes, dans toute léternité future. Quelle infinité dinfinités infiniment répliquée, quel monde, quel univers dans quelque corpuscule quon pourroit assigner."
Infinity