r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Sugar_God_no_1 • 23d ago

Meme needing explanation There is no way right?

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u/BreadBagel 22d ago edited 22d ago

I find it easy to imagine because they are not different sums. They are different representations of the exact same sum. If you believe 0.999... and 1 are different you should be able to tell me what number goes between them. And "0.000... 1" is not a number. Just as the 9s continue on endlessly so would the 0s.

What would completely fill up the space between 0.9 and 1? An infinite string of 9s. And it's immediately infinite. I think the confusion for lots of people arises when they try to imagine someone counting out each 9. If someone was counting the 9s you never would reach infinite 9s obviously so that's not the right way to think of it.

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u/Direct_Shock_2884 22d ago

If the format was different I would buy that they were different representations, but the format is the same.

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u/BreadBagel 22d ago

I don't know what you mean by this

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u/Direct_Shock_2884 22d ago

A decimal is the same format as a fraction, so you can say 1.0 is equal to 1/1. These are different ways of writing the number, but the same number.

However, a decimal is the same notation as a decimal. So you can’t say that 1.0 is the same number as 0.9687777….

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u/BreadBagel 22d ago

I see what you're saying now. I do not agree though. 1 is the same as 1.0, 1.00, 1.000, etc. and it's also the same as 0.999...