Authors: Diana Paola Villabona Millán, Solange Roa Fuentes
Abstract: The present study aims to examine the mental structures that a person
can develop to construct the mathematical concept of infinity in two particular contexts: “the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise” and the “Sierpin´ ski triangle”.
Based on the genetic generic decomposition of the infinite, proposed by
Roa-Fuentes and Oktaç (2014), this investigation focuses on the study of the
particular characteristics, mechanisms and structures produced by each context.
The analysis of data from work done by postgraduate students (in Mathematics
and Mathematics Education) shows how from the infinite iterative process
(potential infinity) advances towards to a transcend object (actual infinity).
Furthermore, the results reflect the importance of the coordination mechanism
in the construction of infinite iterative process.
Key words: APOS theory, paradoxes, Sierpin´ ski triangle, infinite iterative processes,
transcendent objects.