Banach-Tarski and the Infinite Cut: How One Ball Becomes Two
About this episode
We unravel the Banach–Tarski paradox: cutting a solid ball into a finite collection of non-measurable pieces and reassembling them into two identical balls. We’ll unpack why this defies physical intuition, the role of the axiom of choice, and why it only works in 3D (not in 2D). Along the way we explore the surprising consequences for set theory and geometry—how this paradox helped birth new areas of math like amenable groups—and what it reveals about infinity, intuition, and human creativity.
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