Love this one...

[Canadian Zoetrope]

The Infinite Circle

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) made the following interesting point regarding the shape of an infinite circle. The curvature of a circle's circumference decreases as the size of the circle increases. For example, the curvature of the earth's surface is so negligible that it appears flat. The limit of decrease in curvature is a straight line.

An infinite circle is therefore... a straight line!
Edited by: Canadian Zoetrope at: 1/14/04 9:17 am

[voce io]

Abstractly, theoretically, merely the appearance of a straight line.

[Thomas Knierim]

<span style="color:white;">Zoetrope: An infinite circle is therefore... a straight line!</span>

Unfortunately the conclusion is wrong. You said earlier:

<span style="color:white;">The curvature of a circle's circumference decreases as the size of the circle increases. For example, the curvature of the earth's surface is so negligible that it appears flat. The limit of decrease in curvature is a straight line.</span>

Yet it never reaches that limit. The Cusan circle is simply a spiral.

Thomas

[Dave Toast]

The transfinite is not the infinite.

An infinite circle is an impossibility, as is an infinite anything.