monkeyseemonkeydo Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 A third can also be written as 0.33333∞ 0.333 repeating to infinity is still not exactly 1/3 though hence 0.9999... does not equal 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete.M Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 0.333 repeating to infinity is still not exactly 1/3 though hence 0.9999... does not equal 1. This is what confuses me. Random note: My calculator requires 11 decimal places (0.33333333333) for that number to add up to 1 rather than 0.9999.... 10 decimal places still gives 0.9999..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1a2bcio8 Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 How do you not know your friend sees red as blue, blue as yellow and yellow as red? Does 0.999999...(recurring to infinity) = 1? Or something less than 1? The answer follows from how we decide to define it given that mathematics is our construct. It's only really problematic if we think that mathematics, in some sense, exists independently of us and is intimately and only an expression of the physical world. If that were the case then there could only be one answer which has to accord with the actual reality of the physical world. Abstract mathematics would define it in either sense (equalling 1 or less than 1) and investigate the logical consequences of applying it within varying systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Nick Riviera Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 0.333 repeating to infinity is still not exactly 1/3 though hence 0.9999... does not equal 1. Ok, but pi is exactly three... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 The right answer is it equals 1 by the way. We all define infinite the same way. I believe generally it's no longer a debated topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyseemonkeydo Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 The right answer is it equals 1 by the way. We all define infinite the same way. I believe generally it's no longer a debated topic. I stubbornly refuse to accept that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manuel Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 The right answer is it equals 1 by the way. We all define infinite the same way. I believe generally it's no longer a debated topic. I dont understand this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 The number 0.9999.... (to infinite) get's closer to 1 the more 9s are added. If you add an infinte number of 9's, it becomes 1. Can't really explain it any better than that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0.999... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Rainbird Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Adding another decimal place makes the resulting number tend towards zero, but that doesn't mean it equals it. For nearly any application using the exact figure of 1 will be more than adequate, but whether or not it can always be done as things become more abstract and the details become the important part is still a pretty unproven matter. There are arguments for and against, usually with their own merits but yeah, bit of a mindf**k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Adding another decimal place makes the resulting number tend towards zero, but that doesn't mean it equals it. True, unil you throw in the word 'infinity'. The it = 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davey1991 Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Questions with no answers huh. This seems one hell of a dabate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Rainbird Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 True, unil you throw in the word 'infinity'. The it = 1 However by definition you can't add infinite decimal places, which is why the question is such a bitch Infinity is a f**ked up concept, behaving differently in different situations. Things can be countably infinite, for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Yeah it's certainly theoretical. Kind of akin to having infinite monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters, within 30 mins, one of them will have typed the first 5 pages of the bible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Rainbird Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Infinity is a f**ked up concept Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t-comp-kierz Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 I was thinking about this thread earlier and what if our whole lives that we are living right now is a dream and when we die we wake up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistair14 Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 I was thinking about this thread earlier and what if our whole lives that we are living right now is a dream and when we die we wake up? that'd be a piss take Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dann2707 Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Thought of another one that me and my mate thought of. Infact theres threads like these always on reddit and some of the replies are mindblowing. The one I thought of was like, what if there are other planets out there that have the same structure as us in terms of advancement of technology BUT are so many years later/earlier. Like if we were to visit them they were just in the stone age. Or vice versa we visit them and they aren't even humans as they have advanced that much. Again, I worded it much better at the time and i think ive missed out a proper crucial part of my point but still te idea is sort of there haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trials owns Posted March 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Thought of another one that me and my mate thought of. Infact theres threads like these always on reddit and some of the replies are mindblowing. The one I thought of was like, what if there are other planets out there that have the same structure as us in terms of advancement of technology BUT are so many years later/earlier. Like if we were to visit them they were just in the stone age. Or vice versa we visit them and they aren't even humans as they have advanced that much. Again, I worded it much better at the time and i think ive missed out a proper crucial part of my point but still te idea is sort of there haha. Exacully what me and my mate where talking about also! Saying way before humans existed (recorded) there could have been other advanced life that ended and the cycle continues endlessly........hence the big bang etc. What would the human race (if we still existed) do when the sun energy burns out? move to another planet? weird... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boon racoon Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Can a fly stop a train? But really - if someone is blind from birth and has never seen daylight before, are they able to have dreams? Are they even able imagine things in their head? I don't see how as they won't know what anything looks like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TROYston Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Well you sir just messed with my head. Maybe there dreams are them having a long hard conversation with another person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Booth Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Does the plane tak...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyseemonkeydo Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 But really - if someone is blind from birth and has never seen daylight before, are they able to have dreams? Are they even able imagine things in their head? I don't see how as they won't know what anything looks like. A blind person uses their other senses to compensate- they can still touch and feel objects, surfaces, people etc. so can build up a mental 'image' of what they're touching, even if they can't see the detail or the colour. Interesting idea though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simpson Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 The one I thought of was like, what if there are other planets out there that have the same structure as us in terms of advancement of technology BUT are so many years later/earlier. More like when you look through a telescope at planets your looking at them in the past because of the speed of light being "slow" and causing a lag of thousands of years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Nick Riviera Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 13.2 billion years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Deep_Field The HUDF image was taken in a section of the sky with a low density of bright stars in the near-field, allowing much better viewing of dimmer, more distant objects. The image contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies. ..... This is just one-tenth of the diameter of the full Moon as viewed from Earth, smaller than a 1 mm by 1 mm square of paper held at 1 meter away, and equal to roughly one thirteen-millionth of the total area of the sky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted March 25, 2012 Report Share Posted March 25, 2012 less than 1. 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 = 1 A third can also be written as 0.33333∞ So 0.33 + 0.33 + 0.33 = 0.99999∞ So 1 = 0.99999∞ And now I'm about to be proven wrong... It's like asking, does 0.888888...(recurring to infinity) = 1? It doesn't. This conversation just reminded me of a TV program that blew my mind about multiple infinities. On the subject, my gut would say that - by definition - anything that isn't 1... well... isn't. So 0.999999r is not 1, no matter how close it gets. Of course, for arguments sake it's as good as. No, it isn't like asking that at all. 0.333 repeating to infinity is still not exactly 1/3 though hence 0.9999... does not equal 1. This is what confuses me. Random note: My calculator requires 11 decimal places (0.33333333333) for that number to add up to 1 rather than 0.9999.... 10 decimal places still gives 0.9999..... I stubbornly refuse to accept that. I dont understand this. Adding another decimal place makes the resulting number tend towards zero, but that doesn't mean it equals it. For nearly any application using the exact figure of 1 will be more than adequate, but whether or not it can always be done as things become more abstract and the details become the important part is still a pretty unproven matter. There are arguments for and against, usually with their own merits but yeah, bit of a mindf**k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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