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A Flawed Argument Against Actual Infinity in Physics

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Abstract

In “Nonconservation of Energy and loss of Determinism II. Colliding with an Open Set” (2010) Atkinson and Johnson argue in favour of the idea that an actual infinity should be excluded from physics, at least in the sense that physical systems involving an actual infinity of component elements should not be admitted. In this paper I show that the argument Atkinson and Johnson use is erroneous and that an analysis of the situation considered by them is possible without requiring any type of rejection of the idea of infinity.

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Correspondence to Jon Perez Laraudogoitia.

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Dedicated to the memory of Magdalena Garay Ansoleaga (1912–2010).

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Perez Laraudogoitia, J. A Flawed Argument Against Actual Infinity in Physics. Found Phys 40, 1902–1910 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-010-9498-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-010-9498-z

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