# Infinity (?!)

**URL:** <https://rubytalk.org/t/infinity/40>\
**Category:** ruby-talk\
**Created:** [2 June 2002 16:49 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/infinity/40 "2002-06-02T16:49:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bbense\_Comp\_Lang\_R32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@Bbense\_Comp\_Lang\_R32](https://rubytalk.org/u/Bbense_Comp_Lang_R32)\
**Post date:** [2 June 2002 16:49 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/infinity/40/1 "2002-06-02T16:49:33Z")

</div>

In article [20020530145523.GA25662@panoptic.com](mailto:20020530145523.GA25662@panoptic.com),

> **···**
>
> Dossy [dossy@panoptic.com](mailto:dossy@panoptic.com) wrote:
> 
> > On 2002.05.30, Paul Brannan [pbrannan@atdesk.com](mailto:pbrannan@atdesk.com) wrote:
> > 
> > > On Thu, May 30, 2002 at 10:05:24PM +0900, Dossy wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Float allowing division by zero is certainly not of least surprise  
> > > > to me. 😉
> > > 
> > > A Float is implemented by a C double. A Fixnum is a C long. In C, a  
> > > long can be only a number, but a double has many special values  
> > > (particularly NaN, inifinity, and positive/negative zero).
> > > 
> > > For Ruby to work any other way would surprise me.
> > 
> > Considering that Ruby is an OO language, the fact that the  
> > implementation is so tightly coupled to the underlying architecture  
> > surprises me.
> > 
> > Just as true, false and nil are instances of TrueClass, FalseClass  
> > and NilClass, I would have assumed infinity to be an instance of  
> > Number, along with NaN being an instance of Number as well.  
> > Or, something like that.
> 
> Infinity and NaN are part of the IEEE floating point number  
> standard. It’s not just a C thing, but the standard behaviour  
> for floating point numbers on a computer. There is no similar  
> standard for integers.
> 
> - 
> - Booker C. Bense
> 
> –