Can you believe this?

[jimster]

Sorry for the pointless randomness of this post but I came across an amusing fact that I vaguely remembered from my school days - that the following number:

0.999999999999....9 recurring (the 9's go on forever)

is equal to the following number:

1

!!!

[V2]

its true, if you convert fractions into decimals

ie 1/3 = 0.33333333333333333333333333333333etc
so 3/3 = 0.99999999999999999999999999999999etc

but 3/3=1

?

ps, god im bored

[Mr.Everready]

How can it be equal to 1 ? It never reaches 1.
____________________
the undemocratically unelected mod of the Scottish section

[zaknafien]

It's true although most will say it's not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0.999...
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02 Firestorm.

[Yoshi]

It's only true if you take 1/3 to equal 0.333... etc where in reality it doesn't equal a set amount of 3s after the decimal point, they are infinate. You cannot correctly write 1/3 in decimal form, unless you put a dot over the 3 which shows that it is infinate, and you cannot multiply it by three to give you 3/3 then.
____________________
Present: GS650 Katana - Getting ready for summer touring!
Past: TS50, RS50, ZXR400, LT80, TS250

[Drew]

[jimster]

[Yoshi]

I'm probably wrong but that's just how it seems to me.

I'll ask my maths teacher Monday
____________________
Present: GS650 Katana - Getting ready for summer touring!
Past: TS50, RS50, ZXR400, LT80, TS250

[Andy C]

Its all to do with limits, it like you can assume that some equations equal 0 when x= infinity. But your never get to infinity so how do you know this is the case??

when a decimal recurs it not perfect and not 100% accurate. 1/3 can never 100% accurately be shown using decimals, only a number of fair accurcy to the fraction.
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[Ste]

0.99999999999999999999 = 0.99999999999999999999
1 = 1

They don't equal each other, they nearly do, but not quite.

[Andy C]

if you only need the answer to your problem/equation to a certain degree you can assume that 0.999999999 = 1. In engineering some factors can be ignored as they dont make a big enough impact on your answer that you can assume that arnt present.....so im told
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[ncrn]

the way I know it

0.99999 = x

10x = 9.99999

10x - x = 9x, 9.99999 - 0.99999 = 9

so 9x = 9

so x = 1
____________________
Past: 55 Sym Jet, 91 ZZR250, 03 NSR125R. Present: 97 ER-5.
https://www.nsr125.co.uk - NSR Owners forum.

[TheShaggyDA]

[ncrn]

I dont follow, i was using 0.9 reccuring, there is no symbol for reccuring (I can find), so I used 0.99999 for symplicity.

I'm pretty sure 0.9 reccuring, x10 = 9.9 reccuring,
____________________
Past: 55 Sym Jet, 91 ZZR250, 03 NSR125R. Present: 97 ER-5.
https://www.nsr125.co.uk - NSR Owners forum.

[TheShaggyDA]

[hellkat]

0.9999999999 recurring brownie points for a fascinatingly pointless and yet strangely interesting argumentative thread.

/geek
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[The View Askew]

A decimal form number behind the decimal point is a portion of a whole, a whole being 1.

1/3 is .33

times this by 3, you get .99

Therefore, in my opinion, and logic, it CANNOT equal a whole, 1.
____________________
"Do what you always did, get what you always got"

[dew]

[jimster]

[tokarev]

That reminds me of something similar to this scenario:

You are walking towards your motorbike, but each step you take towards your motorbike is half the size of the previous. You will be moving towards your motorbike but you will never reach it.

Now that is a nightmare.

[firefox]

[ncrn]

[tokarev]

[LUXY DJ]

get out more FFS!
____________________
GSXR750
(FAR FAR from standard) www.gixerjunkies.net

[G]

One thing to be considered is that were we would normally round such things up, so....

1/3 = 0.33 (reoccurring) = 0.33333333333333333
+ 1/3 =
2/3 = 0.66 (reoccurring) = 0.66666666666666667

0.33333333333333333+0.66666666666666667=1

Logic would dictate that 0.99 (reoccurring) is smaller than 1 by an infinitely small amount.

However, as the human mind, nor other computing devices work amazingly well with infinity, we would take 0.9999999999999999999etc and round it to a set number of decimal places; as we know that at what ever number of decimal places we choose, it will mean rounding up the last digit by 1, this will lead to the number being rounded to a total of 1.