Does .9-repeating equal 1?

[Lul Thyme]

Originally posted by Drogue

Damn you American's and your silly notation. Dots show recurring decimals in the real world.

The problem with dots is its not always clear what is recurring.

For example what is 0.321112111...

I know your comment was in jest, but this popped in my mind while reading it so

(we use dots for many things that could lead to confusion in math anyway)

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


What the **** are you talking about? .9999.... doesn't move. It has a single, well defined value. That value is one.

Anybody who disputes this is henceforward declared to be an idiot.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Park Avenue


He wouldn't get paid for the full hour then though.

Yes, he would, because 11:59:59.999... is the exact same time as 12:00

[Barnabas]

I say we decide this with a DUEL

[KrazyHorse]

Okay. Whoever fights me gets to have as many times (1 - 0.9999....) bullets as they want.

I'll just take one bullet.

[DRoseDARs]

But it wouldn't be a whole bullet. It will never be a whole bullet. You can play your little witchcraft games all you like, but no amount of unholy conjuring will make .9-repeating equal to 1...



...though, you'd still be just as dead. Witch.

[Elok]

I say the egg should be eaten small-end first. Except I hate hard-boiled eggs, so my opinion is moot.

[Winston]

So, does .6 repeating plus .3 repeating equal the total of all the votes in this poll?

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Elok
I say the egg should be eaten small-end first. Except I hate hard-boiled eggs, so my opinion is moot.

Except that in this case, some of us have logic on our side and some of us have pure, unmitigated prejudice.

I'd also like to note that the people defending the view that 0.999... dne 1 are all know-nothing right wingers, a couple of whom I already have on my ignore list (I'm discounting drose, as I suspect that he's playing around).

Coincidence or not?

[KrazyHorse]

I remember when I was first taught the concept of a limit. I didn't accept it because my brain was still stuck in an immature view of the number system.

I was 9 years old at that point. Looks like some of us never got past that.

[Pekka]

People seem to get stuck int he idea that .99999 is a real number, and that it is a separate number from 1. This isn't popular science where you could make up and CHOOSE the what is right. What feels logical and what feels is something that is easier to grasp.

However that is just not the case. .999999 and 1 represent the same number, we've already had numerous different ways to show this and they were simple so this is getting to a point where you'd argue nuclear scientist saying well that form doesn't make sense, it's all too abstract, this is false, let me show you how to do it because I got the key that only makes common sense in a world of real things.

LIke I said, people who know math agrees to this simple issue. It's a non-issue actually. So if you're not very good at math, why do you still 'choose' what is mathematically right? THat's just seems stupid to me.

[Pekka]

This is to say, that it's not an issue where you can take sides and then vote what is right. What has been shown here now many times is right, it's a fact, it's basic mathematics, you don't have to accept it but it still is a fact. Common sense in this point would be 'well I just don't get it, I'll work on it more' or 'I don't get it, I'll leave it at that'.

[-Jrabbit]

This is to say, that it's not an issue where you can take sides and then vote what is right.

Yes! We should promote democracy in mathematics!!! Advocacy would replace boring proofs! We could have elections to determine issues like this one, the exact number for pi, etc...

[Pekka]

Well, I think that's too complex to start from. We should start from voting the correct blue. What is the correct basic blue? We should vote on that first.

[Barnabas]

OMG Pekka speaks like communist elititist!