Why infinity minus infinity is indeterminate

Infinity is not a number. It is a size, a manyness. Georg Cantor proved that there are 2 and only 2 sizes of infinity. The square root of infinity is infinity. If you choose a number and multiply it by itself, you would have squared the number.

In actuality, when any number including zero is multiplied with infinity, then the results are always undefined. Therefore, zero times infinity is undefined. So, zero times infinity is an undefined real number. This is the definition of undefined.

In Mayan mathematics, zero is supposed to be, in some sense, equal to infinity. Any number multiply by infinity is infinity or indeterminate. Loading when this answer was accepted… The other comments are correct: 10 is undefined. Michael Hardy Michael Hardy 1. Dan Brumleve Dan Brumleve PyRulez PyRulez 9, 3 3 gold badges 33 33 silver badges 93 93 bronze badges.

The reason being because you could never come to a concise answer: Is the 1st infinity larger? Is the 2nd infinity larger? Then answer would be -infinity. Are the same size? Then answer could be 0. Dan W Dan W 6 6 silver badges 15 15 bronze badges. Beni Bogosel. Upcoming Events.

Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. The unofficial elections nomination post. Linked See more linked questions. Related 1. Hot Network Questions. Question feed. Mathematics Stack Exchange works best with JavaScript enabled. Accept all cookies Customize settings. It is easy to write in exponential format: , an extremely compact method, to easily represent the largest numbers and also the smallest numbers.

It is impossible for infinity subtracted from infinity to be equal to one and zero. Using this type of math, we can get infinity minus infinity to equal any real number. Therefore, infinity subtracted from infinity is undefined. Infinity is not a real number, it is an idea.

An idea of something without an end. However, one must remember that infinity is not able to be exhausted. Because of this, there are For more information, see What is infinity minus infinity? I found an answer from math. Aug 30,