Fomenko A.T.
MATHEMATICAL IMPRESSIONS

AMS (American Mathematical Society), USA,Provedence, 1990.

POSTERS BY ANATOLY FOMENKO

Mathematical infinity

No. 196, 1977

(Geometric fantasy on the theme of concepts in general mathematics)

India ink and pencil on paper, 48.5x69.5 cm.

Thousands of faces in a crowd cry out, encircling a single ominous head. Indeed, this image reflects a mathematicians meditations on infinity, a concept that accompanies many theories and appears in various guises in geometry, logic, number theory, and many other areas. Potential and actual infinity, paradoxes of logic, unsolvable problems, the continuum hypothesis and its diverse versions, constructive mathematics, intuitionism ( in the spirit of Poincare)—all of these come to life via the existence of mathematical infinity, the study of which presents fascinating philosophical problems regarding knowledge of the world around us. As for people, a suitable homeomorphism can identify different human beings from a geometric point of view, beginning with a single ideal hero. All of this too recalls the many medieval artists who tried to reflect their interpretations of physical and moral infinites on canvasses devoted to the sufferings of Jesus Christ.


Mathematical infinity