Beyond Infinity - Georg Cantor
Georg Cantor was a mathematician who proved something quite amazing - there are numbers bigger than infinity!
He called these numbers "transfinite numbers" and he even developed an arithmetic for working with them. He denoted them by the Hebrew letter "aleph".
In his lifetime Cantor was ridiculed, not by the general public, but by his fellow mathematicians!
Cantor retired in 1913, living in poverty and suffering from malnourishment during World War I. The public celebration of his 70th birthday was canceled because of the war. He died on January 6, 1918 in the sanatorium where he had spent the final year of his life.
Today Cantor's work is part of any university math curriculum and is regarded as one of the most beautiful pieces of mathematics ever created. It stands apart from most advanced math because you don't need to know much math to understand it. In fact, all you need to know is how to count!
Content written and posted by Ken Abbott abbottsystems@gmail.com