this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
615 points (92.5% liked)

Memes

45660 readers
1167 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 54 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

There is no difference, not even an infinitesimally small one. 1 and 0.999... represent the exact same number.

[–] fahfahfahfah@lemmy.billiam.net 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Well, technically “infinitesimally small” means zero sooooooooo

Edit: this is wrong

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 13 points 1 year ago (6 children)

An infinitesimal is a non-zero number that is closer to zero than any real number. An infinitesimal is what would have to be between 0.999... and 1.

[–] Ghoelian@feddit.nl 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wait what

I always thought infinitesimal was one of those fake words, like gazillion or something

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 3 points 1 year ago

It sounds like it should be, but it's actually a real (or, non-real, I suppose, in mathematical terms) thing! :)

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)