This One Minute Video Explains How You Can Count Infinity

If you thought it was impossible to count infinity think again. This video proves you can and also that not all infinities are equal.
Jessica Miley

If you’ve seen the film The Fault in Our Stars, you might be familiar with the quote "Some infinities are bigger than other infinities" as stated by the film’s protagonist Hazel Grace Lancaster. While that doesn’t seem to make much sense out of context, it actually does when explained to you by the team over at minutephysics with some very speedy whiteboard drawing. Their video 'How to Count Infinity' explains that it is possible to count infinity and that some infinities are bigger than others. While we hate to give away the punchline of these well-produced videos, it's important to know that watching this clip may mean you’ll never try and nod off to sleep by counting sheep again.

The smart guy behind minutephysics is Henry Reich. Reich created the channel with the simple aim of putting out there “cool physics and other sweet science.” The channel falls into a relatively new genre of ‘popularizing science’. While it's debatable the genre was actually kickstarted by Carl Sagan's series, Cosmos, the ability for almost anyone to create a YouTube channel has seen a proliferation of science explainer videos. In addition to the plethora of backyard scientists out there, there are also other numerous channels like minutephysics that retain a more traditional explanation style using written equations. No matter your preference, it is always satisfying to feel just that little bit smarter after only a minute of viewing.