# "Almost infinite" - Nonsensical phrase? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 3, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254 "2004-02-03T00:33:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/1 "2004-02-03T00:33:37Z")
I hear it used quite often - "an almost infinite number of…” Surely it is complete nonsense. Infinity is a limitless concept. ‘Almost’ is a term that requires a limit. I already know the answer, but I may as well ask for the sake of interest - Is it possible for there to be an “almost infinite” quantity of something? ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/2 "2004-02-03T00:44:53Z")
I agree. People should use the more accurate term, “shitload”, to denote exceptionally large quantities. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/3 "2004-02-03T00:53:07Z")
But there are cases where a number is so large that for all real purposes it can be approximated by infinity. Maybe practically infinite might be better than almost infinite, though in such cases. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/4 "2004-02-03T01:05:28Z")
**Bippy** is right. The phrase “near infinite” is used as a synonym for “approximately infinite” in shitloads of cases. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/5 "2004-02-03T01:11:35Z")
Not as bad as “very unique.” ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/6 "2004-02-03T01:13:24Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > But there are cases where a number is so large that for all real purposes it can be approximated by infinity. Maybe practically infinite might be better than almost infinite, though in such cases. But surely, infinity is at _least_ a million times larger than that number (at most - an infinity larger), therefore it is not ‘almost infinite’ or ‘practically infinite’. Any number defined as ‘almost infinite’ is, without question, infinitely smaller than the infinite number. so it is pretty far from ‘almost’ infinite. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/7 "2004-02-03T01:55:46Z")
Just consider it a figure of speech. Sure, it doesn’t make sense when taken literally, but the same can be said about lots of figures of speech. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/8 "2004-02-03T02:50:22Z")
2[sup]80[/sup] is infinite for all practical purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Palve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a698b9/32.png) [@Palve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palve)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/9 "2004-02-03T03:01:03Z")
I agree that there are numbers which can really not be distinguished from infinity in all practical uses. For example: (the number of cubic Planck lengths in the known universe)^googolplex This far surpasses the number of anything countable in the universe, so it really is infinity for all intents and purposes. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/10 "2004-02-03T03:04:09Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > I agree. People should use the more accurate term, “shitload”, to denote exceptionally large quantities. Or a whole shitload, for very large values of shitload. You know what I don’t get? “Unremarkable.” It just seems paradoxical. “That object or situation is so unmeriting of remark that it’s whole lack of remarkableness merits remark.” ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/11 "2004-02-03T04:09:22Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > 2[sup]80[/sup] is infinite for all practical purposes. Depends on what you mean by “practical”. If I weren’t so very lazy, I could probably dig up a problem in thermal physics where you get an intermediate figure of 2[sup]80[/sup] configurations in an ensemble or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/12 "2004-02-03T04:09:31Z")
1. I agree with **ultrafilter** , a lot of Computer Scientists, like me, use 2[sup]80[/sup] as a “close enough” approximation to infinity. If you need 2[sup]80[/sup] instructions, bytes or whatever to do a computation, it will never happen. We used to use 2[sup]64[/sup], which is still awfully big, be we’ve kicked it up by 16 a few years ago due to that darned Moore’s Law. Some Engineers are are also reputed to consider functions like iterated log to be 0 for any practical x. They are the equivalent of “almost zeroes.” (Didn’t Michael Richards star in that?) 1. I have been doing some work with strange numbers fields lately, one of which admits the existence of “integers” greater than any standard integer but less than infinity. To most people that makes them infinite, but they’re not. They are “almost infinite.” 2. It really is just a figure of speech. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/13 "2004-02-03T04:29:14Z")
OK, I checked my old thermal physics textbook and found in the first few pages the quantity (10[sup]20[/sup])! That’s way bigger than 2[sup]80[/sup]. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/14 "2004-02-03T07:56:47Z")
Wait, is this a _metric_ shitload, or an _imperial_ shitload we’re talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Dinaroozie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Dinaroozie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinaroozie)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/15 "2004-02-03T11:31:54Z")
I suppose in very obscure circumstances, the phrase ‘almost infinite’ could make sense, but not in the circumstances it is generally used. Consider this hypothetical situation. You’re walking along the X-axis of the curve y=1/x. You started out at x=20, and you’re walking towards x=0. As you get closer to x=0, you could reasonably say that ‘y is almost infinite’. Actually, y would almost be undefined. Back to the drawing board as far as examples are concerned… however, the idea remains that if you mean ‘almost’ in the sense of ‘soon to be’, then maybe the expression could occasionally make sense. Usually ‘practically infinite’ is more reasonable, though. ~ Isaac PS Actually, now that I reread the original post, the expression you’re after is ‘an almost infinite number of things’. So I guess I’ve been pretty much foiled. Ah well, I’ll leave it there, since I thought it was a good crack at justifying such a blatantly ridiculous expression. ---
**Author:** ![robertliguori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/16 "2004-02-03T15:46:04Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > OK, I checked my old thermal physics textbook and found in the first few pages the quantity (10[sup]20[/sup])! That’s way bigger than 2[sup]80[/sup]. 2^80 = 1208925819614629174706176 10^20 = 100000000000000000000 I think. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/17 "2004-02-03T15:57:13Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > OK, I checked my old thermal physics textbook and found in the first few pages the quantity (10[sup]20[/sup])! That’s way bigger than 2[sup]80[/sup]. 2[sup]80[/sup] is approximately equal to 10[sup]24[/sup]. In general, 2[sup]10x[/sup] is approximately equal to 10[sup]3x[/sup]. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/18 "2004-02-03T16:00:05Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > 1. I have been doing some work with strange numbers fields lately, one of which admits the existence of “integers” greater than any standard integer but less than infinity. To most people that makes them infinite, but they’re not. They are “almost infinite.” Are you working in the hyperreals, or something more exotic? ---
**Author:** ![agiantdwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8c91f0/32.png) [@agiantdwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agiantdwarf)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/19 "2004-02-03T16:17:58Z")
Nope. .999… is almost infinitely close to 1, but it’s .000…1 (which is almost infinitely small, .000…01 would be infinitely small) Just kidding 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254/20 "2004-02-03T17:21:22Z")
> [@robertliguori](#): > > 2^80 = 1208925819614629174706176 > 10^20 = 100000000000000000000 > > I think. He said 10^20 _factorial_, which truly would be a huge giant shitload. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/almost-infinite-nonsensical-phrase/227254.md?page=2)