The Looking Glass

KRISHI SEKSARIA and TIM HIRE “To infinity and beyond” - this classic line used by Disney’s ‘Buzz Lightyear’ character is known by children throughout the world, but is it mathematically true? Is there anything beyond infinity? What is infinity? To gain an understanding about such a mind-numbingly humongous concept (infinite in size!), we must first consider the original roots of infinity in the expansive history of mathematics to discover what the concept really represents. Our journey begins in the 5th Century BCE where, in Greece, the philosopher Anaximander coined the Latin term aperion (which has connotations of ‘indefinite’ or ‘undefined’ in modern-day translations) to represent his belief that the indefinite was the source of all things, perhaps stemming from the Ancient Greek’s fascination with the seemingly endless number of stars. However, such an abstract postulation generated conflict amongst the Greeks, as such an idea could not be rationalised within the boundaries of thei...

DAVID MORTIMER 31 October 2019. This was both the day that was lauded as the exit date for our departure from the European Union, and the date that the third general election was held in a four year time span. As has been the zeitgeist since the 2016 Referendum, Brexit has proved to be the most controversial and reviled issue that grips this nation, a fact that the Conservatives were eager to capitalise upon in calling the election, with polls suggesting the public resonated with Boris Johnson’s ‘Get Brexit Done’ rhetoric. According to Yougov, the Conservatives were going into the general election with a 15% lead. The Liberal Democrats would also benefit from the focus on Brexit. They have branded themselves the Party of Remain, promising to revoke Article 50, the process of leaving the EU, on day 1 if they were to get into office. Their manifesto is also designed around the idea of a ‘Remain Bonus’ of £50 billion, should the UK stay within the EU. The Labour Party would undoubtedly wa...

KHUSH PAU Climate change has already had devastating effects on the global economy, which are forecasted to exacerbate each year. In 2017 the IMF (international monetary fund) claimed that these consequences of climate change have affected the distributions of income and wealth. (Burke et al. 2015) estimated that ‘climate change will reduce global GDP by 23% by 2100, and GDP per capita by around 80% in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa based on an assumption of global warming of 3.7 °C. To mitigate the risks that climate change brings to the economy, global warming must be reduced drastically. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) all support limiting global warming to below 2 °C, with the target of 1.5 °C. However, the IPCC states that this requires reductions of 45% in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, reaching net-zero by 2050. Currently, NDCs are far from satisfying this aim. This is p...