Why in Mayan Mathematics, Zero and Infinity Are the Same: A Possible Explanation

Authors

Olga Kosheleva, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

9-2013

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-13-57

Abstract

In Mayan mathematics, zero is supposed to be, in some sense, equal to infinity. At first glance, while this statement may have a deep philosophical meaning, it does not seem to make much mathematical sense. In this paper, we show, that this statement may be made mathematically reasonable. Specifically, on a real line, it is often useful to consider both −∞ and +∞ as a single infinity. When we deal with very small and very large numbers, it makes sense to use floating point representation, i.e., in effect, consider logarithms of the original values. In terms of logarithms, the original value 0 corresponds to −∞, while the original infinite value corresponds to +∞. When we treat both possible values −∞ and +∞ as a single infinity, we thus treat the original values 0 and infinity as similar.