A zoomable transfinite number-line of the ordinal numbers, currently going up as far as the Bachmann–Howard ordinal φεΩ+1(0). Use the mouse to move and the left and right buttons to zoom in or out, Q or Escape quits. Note that there is currently a limit to the depth you can zoom to before the accuracy runs out.
In simple terms, for every set of transfinite numbers there is a smallest number larger than all of them, which explains why the finite numbers can be grouped together to get the first infinite ordinal ω and then this can be grouped with them to get ω+1 and so on (for a very long way). It is impossible to write a program to display a complete number line up to or any further than ω1CK (the Church–Kleene ordinal), but displays of ordinals smaller than that but larger than φεΩ+1(0) are still possible.
As well as the version below you can run previous versions up to ε0 (the first epsilon number) and up to Γ0 (the Feferman–Schütte ordinal).
Try it now! - press open/run if the browser prompts you (Windows 8 sometimes requires you to click 'More info' first).
- - - [Download] - - -
Ordinal Number Line to φεΩ+1(0) (.7z file, 102KB; zip file, 124KB).
Use 7-Zip to open .7z files, WinZip files (less compression) provided for compatibility.
Decompress all files to a directory and run the EXE file.
Ordinal Number Line to Γ0 (.7z file, 72KB; zip file, 88KB).
Ordinal Number Line to ε0 (.7z file, 72KB; zip file, 88KB).