If I have a cake and I divided it to 3 pieces, if 1/3 is .333 and 3 pieces equals .999, where is the .001?
It's on the knife you used to cut with.
If I have a cake and I divided it to 3 pieces, if 1/3 is .333 and 3 pieces equals .999, where is the .001?
It's on the knife you used to cut with.
I know the proof... The only thing I've never had anyone clean up appropriately is that limits disprove that this is the case.
https://math15fun.com/2017/02/25/finding-limits-graphically/
If a limit exists... (such as the case in this link), -1 is a hole... but not -0.999999...
It's even more apparent in "weird" functions like the one outlined here... https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3136135/limits-of-functions-with-holes-variables-vs-constants
for x=1 the output is 2... but for x=0.99999... it's 1.
For what it's worth, this same issue crops up with 1/7 as well.
0.142857...+0.142857...+0.142857...+0.142857...+0.142857...+0.142857...+0.142857... = 0.999999...
It actually happens with all odd numbers that don't happen to divide 10 (which is where the base10 things comes up). But I think that it's a matter of the origin of the 0.9999... I don't think that 3/3 is ever actually 0.9999... but rather is just a "graphical glitch" of base 10 math. It doesn't happen in base12 with 1/3, but 1/7 still does.
I do accept that we can just presume 0.999... can just be assumed 1 due to how common 3*(1/3) is. But I do think it throws a wrench in other parts of math if we assume it's universally true. Just like in programming languages... primarily float math that these types of issues crop up a lot, we don't just assume that the 3.999999... is accurate, but rather that it intended 4 from the get-go, primarily because of the limits of the space we put the number in. I have no reason to believe that this isn't the case for our base10 numbering systems either.
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