Thanks to Dr. Catone, I know believe .9999 equals 1

So, I have to retract my earlier statements against Jeff Plummer's major. Jeff took me to see Dr. Catone, who explained to me how .9999 (repeating) is 1. He told me that .9999 repeats on infinitely, but eventually it will equal one. My logic? It's infinite! It never ends.

He then proceeded to show me an example, that if it were physically possible, my mind would have exploded. He drew a square on the board and shaded 90% of it (for .9). He then shaded 90% of the remaining 10% (.99) and repeated it as far as he could. His logic? It may be an infinite sequence, but eventually you will run out of room in the square, and it will be shaded 100%.

NOW, if Jeff would have used his education skills to demonstrate this in a graphic way (I'm terrible at math), I would have 'seen the light'. Thank goodness for professors like Dr. Catone, who can explain these things to Poli-Sci majors.

I formally apologize to all the math majors I have argued with or have offended. It equals one, that's all.

Comment by Jeff Plummer on March 6, 2010 at 2:12pm: GLORIOUS DAY!!! MATT FINALLY BELIEVES!!!

Matt is just bitter that I have emerged victorious...though Dr. Catone is much smarter than I. That's why he has a doctorate and I am working on a bachelor'!s haha.

I will just end with I was right and my major is not a sham! Now poli-sci on the other hand...just kidding!

Comment by Robert Tinney on March 6, 2010 at 4:56pm: This doesn't convince me haha. .9999 repeating = .9999 repeating. Does it not have to be rounded to equal 1?

Comment by Matt Palmiere on March 6, 2010 at 9:10pm: Haha it turns out that "infinity" is actually 'finite'...it does end...eventually.

Comment by Colin Lang on March 8, 2010 at 5:47pm: Not convinced. If you continuously shade 90% of what remains, you never finish shading the entire figure. it becomes an insanely small amount, irrelevant to human perception but to suggest that infinity is, in fact, finite seems like a way of simply saying that we can't perceive it and this is what we accept as reality.

My stance remains that nothing in the world is real. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go fly.