My three-year-old has discovered the concept of infinity. And strenuously objects to it.
The conversation started with her asking me, "How many numbers are there?" I told her there were infinitely many and began trying to explain that idea. She looked at me like I was a complete idiot who clearly hadn't understood her question. So, she started counting, and, as usual, needed my help after the number fourteen. When we got to twenty-seven, she declared, "That's it. That's all the numbers!"
I told her about twenty-eight.
She tried her assertion again: "THAT's all the numbers!"
We went on like this for a while. (Though, my counting sped up.) When we got up above one-hundred, she started giggling. When we got to two-hundred, she declared, "That's too many numbers! We only need a little bit of numbers!"
So, there you have it. Infinity has been put on official notice. When Elaine takes over the universe, we're scrapping it for a mathematics that's capped at twenty-seven.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
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She sounds like a future computer scientist. If it can't fit in 64 bits, it's not a number.
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