aporia:
Here’s some clarification about the potential/actual infinite distinction.
Potential infinite: a quantity (more precisely, function) Q = Q(t) that varies with time t is potentially infinite if Q grows without bound as t becomes larger and larger. Q will always break any bound you set on it if you wait for a big enough t. Thus we say Q has the “potential” to become “infinite” if only one could wait an infinite amount of time for it to do so.
Actual infinite: a quantity that is “actually infinite” already, as opposed to one you have to wait forever for it to become infinite. An example would be the set of positive numbers. This set has an actually infinite size, as it has an infinite number of members all at once. We don’t have to wait for the set to get bigger and bigger, as in the potential infinite case. It’s already infinitely big.
I may be mixing terms of art from different fields, but it seems to me that “potential infinite” is the same as saying "relative infinite"while “actual infinite” is the same as “absolute infinite.” The first involves time, which I think is relative. The second is not so encumbered.