Galileo's paradox
Paradoja de Galileo
- Date
- 1638 · confidence high
- Place
- Arcetri, Florence, Italy
- Credited to
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
Galileo Galilei's observation that, although only some integers are perfect squares, every integer can be paired one-to-one with its square, paradoxically suggesting there are as many squares as integers.
What it led to
- An early modern hint that infinity does not behave like finite quantities
- A precedent for Cantor's theory of infinite sets
- The concept of a bijective correspondence between infinite sets