/sci/ - Science & Math

Look, a big misunderstanding with the .999... = 1 problem is that people are INTUITIVELY interpreting the symbol ".999...." Yes, in some sense, that means a decimal followed by "infinitely many 9s", but the fact is that the symbol is really just another way of writing the well known geometric series, and this series happens to converge to (equal) 1. This is just like any other series, when we write that the sum of a series equals a number.

I don't know why someone is arguing about the fact that some limit is never actually hitting 1, that it's just a limit. The limit is BUILT IN to the symbol .999.... When you write that symbol, the limit is already in there, and the limit of the series is 1.

>mfw /sci/ is flooded with 20 of these exact threads every day

This is not some new example you've brilliantly come up with. This is a textbook thought experiment.