Infinity is often thought of as something vast and unending, existing beyond our reach. We are used to finding infinity in something abstract, but it also surrounds us in the natural process, especially the water cycle. This photograph, taken during the winter, caught a moment of that infinite cycle. The frozen lake, the snow-covered landscape, reminds us of the continuing state of transition that water is always undergoing: from vapor to liquid, from liquid to ice, and back again. This is a cycle without end, a natural depiction of infinity.
The water cycle is the infinity in math, because it works in a circle constantly. Just as an endless series of numbers without terminus, so too the perpetual motion of nature’s water: change of form, flow, and return onto itself. This has been going on for millennia and shall continue-independently of seasons or climate change. Each constituent part of the cycle-precipitation, freezing, melting, evaporation-is a link in an endless chain which reinforces nature’s own version of infinity.
The cycle somehow reminds us that infinity exists in tangible ways, even which we are able to see. It connects the photograph to that endless concept-that infinity isn’t just numbers or equations, but a part of life woven into the natural world and repeating endlessly before one’s eyes. But in this picture I would like to capture, not only the beauty of winter, but even something more transcendent, something like infinite, eternal nature.
What a great example! The water cycle is nice because it’s a kind of infinity that doesn’t “go off into the distance” – instead, it stays in a bounded area, but repeats endlessly through time. I think we will find some interesting connections to this in our work this semester.