INFINITY

perhaps the most difficult conception mathematicians have to make. Infinity is defined as being that| quantity which is greater than a ignable quantity, and is denoted by the sign q@. It is most easily conceived asa limit, e.g. as the quantities 14, 14, l4,..-... get smaller and smaller, so 2 n gets larger, and larger and the limit & which nu tends, as the infinitesimal — n tends to zero, is q. In higher geometry parallel lines are those which meet at in infinity, and the asymptotes of an hyperbola are the tangents to the curve at points on it infinitely distant. All points at infinity are on the line at infinity, whose equation in areals is zty+z=0, and all ' circles pa through two imaginary points known as the circular points at infinity.