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Infinity in Python

Allwin Raju
2 min readFeb 5, 2025

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Photo by freddie marriage on Unsplash

In Python, you can represent infinity using float('inf'). It can be used in mathematical operations, comparisons, and algorithms that require an infinitely large value.

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Examples:

1. Positive and Negative Infinity

pos_inf = float('inf')
neg_inf = float('-inf')

print(pos_inf) # inf
print(neg_inf) # -inf

2. Comparison with Other Numbers

print(1000 < float('inf'))  # True
print(-1000 > float('-inf')) # True

3. Arithmetic with Infinity

Python allows you to perform arithmetic operations with infinity. Here’s how it behaves in different cases:

print(float('inf') + 100)  # inf
print(float('-inf') - 100) # -inf
print(float('inf') * 2) # inf
print(float('inf') / float('inf')) # nan (Not a Number)

4. Using math.inf (Recommended)

Python’s math module provides a more readable way:

import math

print(math.inf) # inf
print(-math.inf) # -inf

5. Infinity in Lists (for Algorithms)

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