Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

To Infinity and Beyond

Series exploring topical scientific issues examines the story of infinity - older than time, bigger than the universe and stranger than fiction.

By our third year, most of us will have learned to count. Once we know how, it seems as if there would be nothing to stop us counting forever. But, while infinity might seem like an perfectly innocent idea, keep counting and you enter a paradoxical world where nothing is as it seems.

Mathematicians have discovered there are infinitely many infinities, each one infinitely bigger than the last. And if the universe goes on forever, the consequences are even more bizarre. In an infinite universe, there are infinitely many copies of the Earth and infinitely many copies of you. Older than time, bigger than the universe and stranger than fiction. This is the story of infinity.

1 hour

Clip

50 Years of Horizon Collection

50 Years of Horizon Collection
This programme is part a collection of 麻豆社 programmes specially chosen to celebrate Horizon's 50th anniversary.

50 Years of Horizon - interactive ebook

50 Years of Horizon - interactive ebook
A free, interactive ebook designed for use on Apple, Android and Kindle tablets, and featuring clips from this selection of programmes as well as interviews with current Horizon presenters, is available to download at

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Steven Berkoff
Director Stephen Cooter
Producer Andrew Cohen

Broadcasts

Featured in...