Who Made Infinitely Divisible?

James H. Sterling
James H. Sterling
• • 6 min read

In Philosophy the Origin of the Idea in the Western Tradition Can Be Traced to the 5Th Century Bce Starting with the Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic Philosopher...

Who Made Infinitely Divisible?

In philosophy
The origin of the idea in the Western tradition can be traced to the 5th century BCE starting with the Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Democritus and his teacher Leucippus, who theorized matter's divisibility beyond what can be perceived by the senses until ultimately ending at an indivisible atom.

Can something be infinitely divided?

In a general sense, infinitely divisible means that any section of time and space can be divided into an infinite number of smaller and smaller pieces. For example, 10 feet can be subdivided into 1 foot sections, 0.1 foot sections, 0.00001 foot sections…and so on.

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Can you divide by 2 Forever?

Mathematically, there is no greatest power of two: so, no matter how many pieces this process of subdivision has already yielded, there is always the potential for that number to be doubled by further subdivision. But the thing to appreciate is that the number of pieces will always remain finite.

James H. Sterling

James H. Sterling

Environmental Science & Climate Journalist
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James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.