Hatrack River Forum: gah! I hate math.

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Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :

I gave up on math during high school, and I've done all I could to avoid it. But it found me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0.999...

At first I thought (no wait that can't possibly be true) but after looking at the proofs, which even I can comprehend, it has to be true.

I love Political Science because when its true, the world makes more sense. For me, math, when its true, just introduces myriad of situations where the new information SHOULD be useful, but for the life of me I don't know how.

[ October 25, 2006, 03:44 PM: Message edited by: BlackBlade ]

Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :

That's funny. I read that wiki article, then thought, "I love math."

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

Wow . . . a whole wikipedia entry devoted to this simple fact?!

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

quote:
I love Political Science because when its true it the world makes more sense. For me, math, when its true, just introduces myriad of situations where the new information SHOULD be useful, but for the life of me I don't know how.

This is precisely why people should only be allowed to study political 'science' after they've shown they can handle the real stuff.

Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :

quote:
Originally posted by King of Men:

quote:
I love Political Science because when its true it the world makes more sense. For me, math, when its true, just introduces myriad of situations where the new information SHOULD be useful, but for the life of me I don't know how.
This is precisely why people should only be allowed to study political 'science' after they've shown they can handle the real stuff.

To be fair, I am GOING to have to revisit math in order to get a degree in political science. Its back to college algebra, pre calc, statistics, and quantative reasoning.

I'm still dreading it.

Posted by Avin (Member # 7751) on :

quote:
Wow . . . a whole wikipedia entry devoted to this simple fact?!

I'm not surprised, given the amount that the opposite statement gets repeated ad nauseum.

I can't count the number of times I've encountered people, online or otherwise, who were ABSOLUTELY convinced that .999... was NOT equal to 1. Sometimes, no amount of proofs I could come up with were sufficient. They would think the proofs I was using were of the 0=1 sort.

Posted by Soara (Member # 6729) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Icarus:
Wow . . . a whole wikipedia entry devoted to this simple fact?!

Well, there's also an entry devoted exclusively to Valentine Wiggin. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

Math doesn't like you, either.

Posted by striplingrz (Member # 9770) on :

I actually like Math, but looking at that link makes me question two things... (don't take them personal)

a) like someone mentioned above, a whole article dedicated to that? come on

b) and worse, someone actually took the time to read all that? ouch [Wall Bash]

Now this link I think is much more worthy of attention. Maybe its because I went to architecture school, maybe its because it was really cool when reading "The Davinci Code"? I don't know, but that one is much more fun to me. [Wink]

Posted by Samuel Bush (Member # 460) on :

So 0.999 equals 1. Well, I'll be danged!

This would explain why five out of four people have trouble with fractions. And also why there are three types of people in the world: those who can count and those who can't.

Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :

And one plus one equals three for large values of one.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Samuel Bush:
So 0.999 equals 1.

That is not what it said. And it's not true, either.

Posted by Samuel Bush (Member # 460) on :

OK, let me rephrase that then:

So, “in the mathematics of the real numbers, 0.999… is a recurring decimal exactly equal to the number 1. In other words, the symbols "0.999…" and "1" represent the same real number.” Well, I’ll be danged!

(I think someone must have divided by zero in there somewhere.)

Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :

People who like math might enjoy this . (The funny stuff is in the photos.)

"I wish I was your derivative so I could lie tangent to your curves." lol

Posted by Omega M. (Member # 7924) on :

Yes, I see the proofs of 0.999...=1 and understand them, but I can't help thinking that 0.999... just can't be 1. I guess I'm not accustomed to conceptualizing a repeating decimal as an infinite series (and an infinite series is a limit, not a sum of an infinite number of numbers---actually, I got used to that pretty quickly after I learned it; I guess a repeating decimal looks too humdrum to me to be a limit).

Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :

quote:
God made the integers; all else is the work of man.

Leopold Kronecker

Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :

quote:
Originally posted by ElJay:
Math doesn't like you, either.

I approached math with an open mind, it chose to abuse me. When math offers me the olive branch we can negotiate a compromise.

Nobody should ever be in a relationship where their partner absolutely refuses to change in any regard, and the partner insists they are always right. Additionally your partner does nothing but demand you change your thinking until it agrees with their mindset.

Oh wait, thats called marriage [Big Grin]