How Does Mathematician Explains Infinity in 5 Levels of Difficulty | WIRED Work?

Imagine you're counting cookies and there's never an end to them, that’s infinity!

Let’s say you have a bowl of cookies. If you eat one, another appears. No matter how many you eat, more keep coming. That’s like the first level of infinity: it goes on forever, no stop.

Now imagine you're not just counting cookies, you're counting all numbers: 1, 2, 3... and so on. There's always a next number, that’s the second level of infinity. It doesn’t run out, even when you count forever!

What if you had two bowls of cookies? One with numbers (like before), and another with pairs: (1, 2), (3, 4)... You might think there are more cookies in the second bowl, but actually, both go on forever, that’s the third level. They're infinite, but they’re the same size of infinity.

Now imagine stacking cookie layers one after another, each layer has infinite cookies! That's like the fourth level: some infinities are bigger than others, just like some piles of cookies are taller than others.

Finally, think of a world where everything is made of cookies, even time and space. That’s the fifth level of infinity. It’s everywhere you look! Imagine you're counting cookies and there's never an end to them, that’s infinity!

Let’s say you have a bowl of cookies. If you eat one, another appears. No matter how many you eat, more keep coming. That’s like the first level of infinity: it goes on forever, no stop.

Now imagine you're not just counting cookies, you're counting all numbers: 1, 2, 3... and so on. There's always a next number, that’s the second level of infinity. It doesn’t run out, even when you count forever!

Now imagine stacking cookie layers one after another, each layer has infinite cookies! That's like the fourth level: some infinities are bigger than others, just like some piles of cookies are taller than others.

Finally, think of a world where everything is made of cookies, even time and space. That’s the fifth level of infinity. It’s everywhere you look!