Imagine a large mountain. Every year a small bird lands on one of the many boulders strewn about on that mountain and cleans it's beak on it and flies away.
The next year it does the same thing. Think of how many years would have to pass before that bird and all it's descendants had worn the mountain away. That number of years is still nowhere near infinity.
Infinity can be expressed by dividing any normal number by zero. In computers this creates a special kind of problem because dividing by zero will cause software and the hardware inside the processor to throw an error, instead of just returning the highest number that can be expressed by that hardware.
Infinity has appeared in many books, TV shows and movies
- Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy Infinite Improbability Drive is a wonderful new way to travel in space without all the mucking about in hyperspace. It's also mentioned in the Total Perspective Vortex which was created by Trin Tragula to show his wife the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it.
- Red Dwarf Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers is science fiction comedy novel by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor who were creators and writers of the Red Dwarf television series.
- Revenge I love you Infinity times Infinity is said by fictional character Emily Thorne to her father, who often says it to her too. It is also carved on the post at their fictional home in The Hamptons.
Another use of "infinity" is the Infinity pool, this one is at the top of The Shard, London
Even space isn't infinite - as far as we know !