this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
1755 points (99.2% liked)

Science Memes

11217 readers
3109 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
1755
Mythbusters (mander.xyz)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
178 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I feel it is my pedantic duty to inform you that 99.9... is equal to 100.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Only if you're rounding. 99.9 is still 1/10 of a digit separated from 100, but it's not equal to 100 for good reason.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But the "...." matters.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It only signifies that the post-decimal nines are repeating infinitely. It still doesn't make 99.99999...=100 unless you intentionally round the value for some nondescript reason, and even then, rounding off isn't changing the value, only the perceived value for mathematical simplicity, not objective accuracy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

".9..." is repeating, but rational. So it's actually "1" . Let's do the math.

.9... / 3 = .3...

.3... = 1/3

1/3 x 3 = 3/3

.9... = 3/3

3/3 = 1

.9... = 1

Still not convinced? We'll use algebra instead of fractions.

0.9... = x

10x = 9.9...

10x - 0.9... = 9

9x = 9

x = 1

[–] [email protected] -3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

So why is it represented as 99.999... Instead of just 100? It's because you're forgetting the fact that fractions and decimals are infinite depending on the magnification. 99.9999... literally goes on forever. That means that no matter how close it gets to 100, it will never be equivalent to 100.

It's like how you can know infinitely nothing and still think you know everything. 👀🫠

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

It's because we can write numbers in many ways. 9900/99 is 100 just as surely as 99.99... is.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago

Love how you fight this to the death in a thread where people are discussing how a scientific mindset is so important.

See: https://lemmy.world/comment/10840766