I'm not a math major, and I haven't really taken much math in college, but here goes anyways:

The proof of this problem hinges on the assumption that 1/3 = .3 repeating. Is this a correct assumption?

I can punch 1/3 into my calculator and it says .3 repeating, but is that really equal to 1/3, or is it just infinitely close to 1/3? 1/3 of something means it is broken into three equal parts that add up to 1, but since .3 repeating + .3 repeating + .3 repeating adds up to .9 repeating, wouldn't .9 repeating just be infinitely close to 1? Because of the infinity problem, there isn't a number between .9 repeating and 1, is this because .9 repeating isn't really a number, I mean you can't just write it out, because is keeps going, wouldn't that make it a limit function, more of a number concept than an actual number?

Arashi

I'm sure Edison turned himself a lot of colors before he invented the lightbulb. - H.S.

In reply to Re: .999999... == 1? (Somewhat OT) by arashi
in thread .999999... == 1? (Somewhat OT) by Sherlock

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.