Amhuxt.391
net.math
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ihnss!eagle!mhuxt!rwhaas
Wed Mar 17 11:34:57 1982
Re: You Too Can Be A Math Genius
	Of course there is nothing wrong with the proof that
.999... is equal to 1. In general,
	x = a + ar + ar^2 + ...

	r*x = ar + ar^2 + ...

and on subtraction,

	x(1-r) = a or x = a/(1-r)

the usual sum of a geometric series. In the example given,
take a=.9 and r=.01.

Roy Haas (Bell Labs, Indian Hill)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
 gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>
 of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/


This Usenet Oldnews Archive
article may be copied and distributed freely, provided:

1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles.

2. The following notice remains appended to each copy:

The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 
 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.