Does 0.999999999999999999 really equal 1?


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Originally posted by Bant

we count things(like tennis balls) by how many of them there are, not necessarily by their weight or size(though depending on the circumstances there are many different ways of measuring quantity).

just because 1 tennis ball is a bit bigger or smaller than 1 other tennis ball, it doesnt mean they are not tennis balls. each tennis ball is its own entity, therefore it is 1. >D

There is a pizza sitting in front of you.. There's another pizza in front of you with a piece missing... How many pizza's? = 1+(7/8)

There's a tennis ball.... There's another with an atom missing... How many tennis balls? = 1+(999999999999999999999999/100000000000000000000000)

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Originally posted by prasanth

open notepad type 0.999999999999999999 and save it

then open notepad again and type 1 and save it

now look the first one is 20 bytes and the second is just one byte

so they are not equal:P

LOL.. good to have you back buddy :D

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what is 0 multiplied by any number?

0 any amount of times remains 0.

0.0 repeating is the same thing as 0. therefore 0.....0

There's a tennis ball.... There's another with an atom missing... How many tennis balls? = 1+(999999999999999999999999/100000000000000000000000)

theres 2 pizzas in front of me. take away 1 slice from a pizza and there are still 2 pizzas.

or are there 16 slices and 16 slices?

take away 16 slices from one area and its 16 slices and 15 slices. whats your point =)

how do you know what the standard # of atoms is for a tennis ball? then how can you judge which is whole and which is not? therefore how can you judge how much of a tennis ball is whole?

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Originally posted by Evil_Dragon

Naturally, no... I would agree with you, but mathematically real clean numbers exist.

Mathematically, yes, real numbers exist. But in nature, the real world, and the natural world as we know it: it simply doesn't.

I've also been thinking about this: take a football field for example. Divide it in half: 50 yards. In half: 25 yards. In half: 12.5 yards. In half: 6.25 yards. In half: 3.125. In half: 1.5625. In half: .78125. The decimal gets bigger as it goes along. Somehow, as we can't explain it, numbers go on forever.

The Maya were one of the first to come up with the concept of "zero," by the way. Here's a question for you (if your religious or not, you should still think about it): When was Christ born? 0 AD? or is it 0 BC? But "0" wasn't an official year. So is it 1 AD? or 1 BC? This also leads up to questions like: when did this millenium officially begin? 2000? 2001? 2002? It's so difficult to think about!

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Originally posted by Evil_Dragon

There is a pizza sitting in front of you.. There's another pizza in front of you with a piece missing... How many pizza's? = 1+(7/8)

There's a tennis ball.... There's another with an atom missing... How many tennis balls? = 1+(999999999999999999999999/100000000000000000000000)

:) Thanks for explaining that so well to him for me. Good points!

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Originally posted by sp00nman

Mathematically, yes, real numbers exist. But in nature, the real world, and the natural world as we know it: it simply doesn't.

I've also been thinking about this: take a football field for example. Divide it in half: 50 yards. In half: 25 yards. In half: 12.5 yards. In half: 6.25 yards. In half: 3.125. In half: 1.5625. In half: .78125. The decimal gets bigger as it goes along. Somehow, as we can't explain it, numbers go on forever.

The Maya were one of the first to come up with the concept of "zero," by the way. Here's a question for you (if your religious or not, you should still think about it): When was Christ born? 0 AD? or is it 0 BC? But "0" wasn't an official year. So is it 1 AD? or 1 BC? This also leads up to questions like: when did this millenium officially begin? 2000? 2001? 2002? It's so difficult to think about!

Ahem, actually the date when the person known as Christ was born is 14 A.D.

Btw: The football thing is like my bus thing...

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Originally posted by prasanth

damn why these people are still pulling out their hairs one this simple question:P

guys.. round.. i learned like 6 years ago :p :D

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Originally posted by prasanth

damn why these people are still pulling out their hairs one this simple question:P

Because it isn't simple. It's a question that goes on forever, as does it's answer. :)

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Originally posted by Evil_Dragon

Ahem, actually the date when the person known as Christ was born is actually 14 A.D.

Btw: The football thing is like my bus thing...

But we don't know for sure about that date..

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Originally posted by sp00nman

But we don't know for sure about that date..

Well, it's closer than the year 0.

-Edit- Wow, over 20 posts on this one evil little thread... -Edit-

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Originally posted by codyg11

You cannot accurately obtain an answer by multiplying a real number by a repeating decimal. Use fractions whenever possible.

DID ANYONE LISTEN TO HIM~!???????????????????????>?!L#I!$OJ%@J87rgh9a8d7hfadosifjhw4t

edit: also read the topic.....it says "Does 0.999999999999999999 really equal 1?" the answer to that is 0.999999999999999999 doesn't and will never equal a whole fraction of 1/1. any nerds to please correct me if i'm wrong :(

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Originally posted by Evil_Dragon

Well, it's closer than the year 0.

-Edit- Wow, over 20 posts on this one evil little thread... -Edit-

Yeah, but it doesn't matter. Think about this: it wouldn't make a difference if he was born 12 AD, 13 AD, 1100 AD, or 1 AD: because the year "0" was never counted, and thus everything has been thrown off. Does that make sense?? (?) :s It's difficult to think about.

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Originally posted by sp00nman

Yeah, but it doesn't matter. Think about this: it wouldn't make a difference if he was born 12 AD, 13 AD, 1100 AD, or 1 AD: because the year "0" was never counted, and thus everything has been thrown off. Does that make sense?? (?) :s It's difficult to think about.

Yep... Well, actually in answer to your question. The year 0 is neither AD nor BC. I guess it's NA.

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so what if 0 was never counted ;)

the years are only a tool for us to record history with, nothing more. millenium? what millenium... we made that up.

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Originally posted by sp00nman

When was Christ born? 0 AD? or is it 0 BC? But "0" wasn't an official year. So is it 1 AD? or 1 BC? This also leads up to questions like: when did this millenium officially begin? 2000? 2001? 2002? It's so difficult to think about!

Christ was born at about 4 BCE. He then was crucified April of 30 CE.

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Originally posted by Evil_Dragon

Alright, finally justice... I may rest now. Golfing tomorrow. I'm also hoping for a Hacked.Seer Trillian skin. ;)

Redrope was supposed to do it, but he basically quit because he fell in love with 77. So I'm doing it over the weekend. Sorry about that.

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Originally posted by Michael

Christ was born at about 4 BCE. He then was crucified April of 30 CE.

It doesn't matter though... the years were still thrown off.

And dates don't matter, I agree. But I'm just using them as examples that the number 0 acts as a very strange number, and can often throw things off.

I'm going to bed... goodnight. :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping:

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alright, getting back to the subject... :D

the logic in the explanation given in the first place is flawed. You're giving two entirely different numbers 1/3 and 0.333..333.33..... 1/3 is a fraction in itself, but is different from the 0.333..333..333 you have given. 1/3, as someone said before, should stay as a fraction whenever possible. In translating it to decimals, we are trying our best to represent a value our math cannot define using decimals, although that value is never and never will be defined - it is only best represented with 0.333.33....3....

So in multiplying that decimal value by three, you are only multiplying a representation of a value that is impossible to define, which will only provide you with another value that is impossible to define. These will never bring you to the value of one, as you cannot use undefinable values to multiply by three, but it will bring you the closest possible representation of the an impossible to reach value that is the closest to the number one.

That's what I think anyway :D I got me a headache yo :s

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