If humans made programs that could treat infinite numbers like they should be treated then we'd be gods. The only thing your examples prove are that programs can`t calculate infinitely.
Sunday, April 1, 2012 2:40:08 PM
She shows a lot of interesting tricks, but really, she only points to the real mathematical proof that 1 = .9...
Basically, in the proof, you start by assuming that they are not equal. So, if we assume that x = 0.9..., then 1 - x = a, for some real number a > 0. Then, equivalently, 1 - a = x.
Then, you pick a number b that is easy to work with that is less than a. Since b < a, 1 - b > x.
But then, based on the choice of b, it is trivial to show that 1 - b < x.
Since this is an obvious contradiction, it means that our assumption that 1 != x is false, and so 1 = x = 0.9...
Sunday, April 1, 2012 2:14:24 PM
Um, she proved that 1=1 and that .999repeating is .999repeating... She would sneak in a -.999repeating to a subtraction rather than a -1...
1/3 is as close as we can get to 33.333333333_%, but it's not dead on.
I don`t like her explanation, her mathematics only work in her weird way here, not in my mind. If you have .9999repeating, you are lacking one itty-bitty fraction missing to complete the 1, even if it is intifitismally lesser