All of T-rodactyl's Comments + Replies

Thank you for the reply! I get that 1/3= 0.333... from just dividing 1 by 3, but I do have a lack of understanding for what it means to multiply an infinite decimal by some integer. I appreciate the explanation with the decimals to the left!

I was able to make sense of this argument through the (rather unsophisticated) reasoning that 0.333...= 1/3, and multiplying both sides by three gives 0.999...=1. (I'm not sure if this actually adds anything, but it was how I made myself believe the validity of the argument)

4Qiaochu_Yuan
But how do you know that 0.333... = 1/3? (And that multiplying an infinite decimal by 3 corresponds to multiplying each of its digits by 3?) In the spirit of my comment, consider the analogous argument for infinite decimals to the left. Let x = ...333. Then 3x = ...999 = -1 (we established this earlier) so x = -1/3. Are you satisfied with that?

Hello everyone!

I am an engineering student from India and found Less Wrong through an article about 'tabooing' your words, which I was brought to through Slate Star Codex's description of Motte and Bailey arguments. I have subconsciously thought of my interests in cool logic problems and in the disagreements between social groups as somewhat tenuously related, and I find the content here very appealing and applicable to both areas.