September 3, 2004
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Grasping Infinity
We were all in bed. I was very tired.
- Ms. 6: Mommy, what’s the biggest number?
- Ms. 4: Sixteen.
- Me: There is no biggest number, honey. They go on forever.
- Ms. 4: I mean thirteen.
- Ms. 6: Thirteen is a tiny number, 4. What do you mean, ‘forever,’ Mommy? that’s ridiculous.
- Me: It’s called infinity. Going on forever.
- Ms. 6: That doesn’t make sense. What’s the biggest number YOU know?
- Me: I can’t tell you, honey. Let’s say, for example, that the biggest number I thought I knew was 100. Well, then I know that there’s a number that’s 100 plus 1, and 100 plus 2, and 100 plus 3. You see what I mean? They go on forever.
- Ms. 6: But what’s the NAME of the biggest number?
- Me: As far as I know they stop having names at a certain point.
- Ms. 6: Then they can’t exist.
- Me: Sure they can. You can have number 234,423,546,346,749,964,034,324 … and so on, even if it’s not named.
~ disgruntled silence all around ~
- Ms. 6: Mommy, what’s the biggest number?
Comments (18)
I think 4′s interjections are the best part of the story. LOL.
This reminds me of the professor trying to explain to his class the difference between an engineer and a phycisist: The male eng. and male phys. were put in a long room. At the other end of the room was a beautiful naked woman. The men were asked, if they could advance toward the woman only covering half the remaining distance with each move, would they ever reach the woman? The physicist confidently replied, “no”. The engineer replied, “I’ll get close enough!”
It is amazing that they are contemplating the biggest number and such. Ms 6′s response that it can’t exist if it doesn’t have a name is very interesting. I can remember struggling with these concepts- infinity and such- trying to grasp the idea in my pictoral mind. I think that I was 25…and high.
Very good answers by a tired mommy, literature major.
if it helps, maybe you could just name the biggest number “bob”.
and yeah, 4′s thoughts on the matter were definitely the best.
LOL, not an easy concept for a six year old. I don’t think I could explain it any better and I have a BA in Math. hehe
That’s sweet!
Walk on…
I used to be annoyed when my daughter asked so many questions…now she’s a preteen who thinks she knows all the answers. It drives me crazy, but I love it.
I, too, remember struggling with the concept of “infinity”. It’s a really tough one. Both my brother and I had nightmares about it.
i’m really afraid here. i was going to say the exact same thing as rache. i mean down to the name bob.
o_o
how scary is that?
Love the way you teach your children when the natural opportunity arises at their own instigation.
You are such a good mom. It’s so exciting that they feel comfortable enough to ask any time. Blessings Abound
I am with the Bob explanation! Though, I would have just said its name is Infinity.
infinity was a cool word until whatever car company it was co-opted it as a name.
nobody’s named a car bob yet, though.
unless lucky has. that bitch is in my head, yo.
Actually, Ms. 6 has a valid point, as far as philosophy goes.
We may have agreed, via Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, that numbers go on forever.
But do names?
MAJOR flashback…
I used to contemplate the infinite expanse of the universe… at the age of ten. I loved astronomy, you see.
This is a wonderful story! The highest number I knew was a google. (1×10^100) But I don’t think you can actually use that number any more without paying some sort of royalty to the search engine folks…
there’s also a googleplex, but I forget how much bigger than a google it is!
What a great conversation. Are you sure it was disgruntled silence, or just contemplative? Maybe Ms. 4 or Ms. 6 could come up with their own names for the biggest number.
One of my favorite parent/child discussions: infinity.