3 ms·

12 hours ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34087556 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34087556 Now I've checked the past link, it appears some peo

12 hours ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34087556 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34087556 Now I've checked the past link, it appears some people struggle with real numbers or haven't touched any areas needing calculus. 2 years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23949097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23949097 3 years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23004086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23004086

susam 4y ago
Thanks for sharing the links. Your third link posted 3 years ago has very interesting discussion in the comments! Especially the comment there by lmkg that says the following leads to a very interesting discussion thread. > People seem to have the intuition that the decimal representation of a number is a number.
- anenefan 4y ago
  https://hn.algolia.com/?query=0.999%E2%80%A4%E2%80%A4%E2%80%A4&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0 https://hn.algolia.com/?query=0.999%E2%80%A4%E2%80%A4%E2%80%... I'm surprised it gets so much attention. I suppose it would be cruel to also point out zero multiplied by infinity = 1 [actually it might be -1, my memory on the maths I used to toy with is at least 30 years distant]
  - fknorangesite 4y ago
    > I'm surprised it gets so much attention. 0.999... = 1 is my favourite internet drama. Unlike picking a fight with other classics like "will an airplane on a treadmill take off?", this one actually has an objectively correct, unambiguous answer. People argue against it so hard and are just so wrong. It's always hilarious.
    - anenefan 4y ago
      It's the sort of topic an old school Troll might have posted to an usenet group where contributors should know better. As for the everyday person who might have left school as soon as they could, they might not have been paying that much attention in class. Similar occurs when some people who should know better start to confuse integer type numbers with real numbers.

susam 4y ago

Thanks for sharing the links. Your third link posted 3 years ago has very interesting discussion in the comments! Especially the comment there by lmkg that says the following leads to a very interesting discussion thread. > People seem to have the intuition that the decimal representation of a number is a number.

anenefan 4y ago
https://hn.algolia.com/?query=0.999%E2%80%A4%E2%80%A4%E2%80%A4&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0 https://hn.algolia.com/?query=0.999%E2%80%A4%E2%80%A4%E2%80%... I'm surprised it gets so much attention. I suppose it would be cruel to also point out zero multiplied by infinity = 1 [actually it might be -1, my memory on the maths I used to toy with is at least 30 years distant]
- fknorangesite 4y ago
  > I'm surprised it gets so much attention. 0.999... = 1 is my favourite internet drama. Unlike picking a fight with other classics like "will an airplane on a treadmill take off?", this one actually has an objectively correct, unambiguous answer. People argue against it so hard and are just so wrong. It's always hilarious.
  - anenefan 4y ago
    It's the sort of topic an old school Troll might have posted to an usenet group where contributors should know better. As for the everyday person who might have left school as soon as they could, they might not have been paying that much attention in class. Similar occurs when some people who should know better start to confuse integer type numbers with real numbers.