The
Infinity Symbol
Originating from the Latin infinitas which means
“unboundedness”, infinity is the concept of
endlessness or limitlessness most widely tackled in the fields of
mathematics and physics.
The very first person known to have written about the concept of
infinity was Archimedes, more than 2300 years ago. His writings were
found buried under paintings and prayers which were written on top of
his, and were only discovered recently thanks to a very powerful
scanner that uses hair-thin X-rays (Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource).
Up until the discovery of his work, it was widely accepted that Galileo
was the first scientist to bounce around the idea in his head.
The person who actually introduced the infinity
symbol was John Wallis in 1655. This symbol is
sometimes called the Lemniscate. It is a symbol that evolved a little
bit from the Etruscan numeral for 1000 which looked like 2 letter Cs
facing each other with an “I” in the middle (CIƆ).
There is another theory that he actually derived the infinity symbol
from omega (ω), the last letter of the Greek alphabet.
The ouroboros symbol which is that of a snake twisted into a horizontal
figure 8 and biting its own tail is also said to be a most plausible
basis for the infinity symbol because it is a fitting depiction of
endlessness.
|
More Symbols:
African Symbols
Astrology Symbols
Healing Symbols
Jewish Symbols
Love Symbols
Masonic Symbols
Norse Symbols
Sacred Symbols
Sumerian Symbols
Tarot Symbols
Colors Symbols
Heart Symbols
Math Symbols
Islamic Symbols
Persian Symbols
|
