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As found at wikipedia.com The infinity symbol 8 in several typefaces.The word infinity comes from the Latin infinitas or "unboundedness." It refers to several distinct concepts (usually linked to the idea of "without end" or "bigger than the biggest thing you can think of") which arise in philosophy, mathematics, and theology. In popular usage, infinity is usually thought of as something like "the largest possible number" or "the furthest possible distance"; hence naïve questions such as "what is the next number after infinity?" or "if you travel to infinity, what happens if you then go a bit further?". In mathematics, "infinity" is often used in contexts where it is treated as if it were a number (i.e., it counts or measures things : "an infinite number of terms") but it is clearly a very different type of "number" than the integers or reals. Infinity is relevant to, or the subject matter of, limits, aleph numbers, classes in set theory, Dedekind-infinite sets, large cardinals, Russell's paradox, hyperreal numbers, projective geometry, extended real numbers and the absolute Infinite. In philosophy, infinity can be attributed to space and time, as for instance in Kant's first antinomy. In both theology and philosophy, infinity is explored in articles such as the Ultimate, the Absolute, God, and Zeno's paradoxes. In Greek philosophy, for example in Anaximander, 'the Boundless' is the origin of all that is. He took the beginning or first principle to be an endless, unlimited primordial mass (apeiron). In Judeo-Christian theology, for example in the work of theologians such as Duns Scotus, the infinite nature of God invokes a sense of being without constraint, rather than a sense of being unlimited in quantity. In Ethics infinity plays an important role designating that which cannot be defined or reduced to knowlege or power. For a discussion about infinity and the physical universe, see Universe. Infinity symbol John Wallis introduced the infinity symbol on mathematical literature.The precise origin of the infinity symbol 8 is unclear. One possibility is suggested by the name it is sometimes called — the lemniscate, from the Latin lemniscus, meaning "ribbon." One can imagine walking forever along a simple loop formed from a ribbon. A popular explanation is that the infinity symbol is derived from the shape of a Möbius strip. Again, one can imagine walking along its surface forever. However, this explanation is improbable, since the symbol had been in use to represent infinity for over two hundred years before August Ferdinand Möbius and Johann Benedict Listing discovered the Möbius strip in 1858. It is also possible that it is inspired by older religious/alchemical symbolism. For instance, it has been found in Tibetan rock carvings, and the ouroboros, or infinity snake, is often depicted in this shape. In the Rider-Waite tarot deck, the lemniscate represents the balance of forces and is often associated with the magician card. John Wallis is usually credited with introducing 8 as a symbol for infinity in 1655 in his De sectionibus conicis. One conjecture about why he chose this symbol is that he derived it from a Roman numeral for 1000 that was in turn derived from the Etruscan numeral for 1000, which looked somewhat like CI? and was sometimes used to mean "many." Another conjecture is that he derived it from the Greek letter ? (omega), the last letter in the Greek alphabet. Or else, because when all typesetting was by hand, 8 was easily made by setting an 8 turned by 90°. The infinity symbol is represented in Unicode by the character 8 (U+221E). Another popular belief is that the infinity symbol is a clear depiction of the hour glass turned 90°.[citation needed] Obviously, this action would cause the hour glass to take infinite time to empty thus presenting a tangible example of infinity. The invention of the hourglass predates the existence of the infinite symbol allowing this theory to be plausible.
