ahosbaldestin.bsky.social
Mathematics Professor. Husband. Father. Mancunian exile in the South. Politics: the left has to be flawless whilst the right can be lawless.
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In no universe is 0.49999999 equal to 0.5. However the conversation is about 0.49999999..., with the ellipsis meaning that the 9 is repeated indefinitely.
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Of course, going back to the problem as originally stated, the temptation is to say 0 because of the 4 at the start of the decimal expansion, but that would betray a lack of understanding.
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We may use different conventions in different circumstances. e.g., weighing yourself, e.g., marking an assignment, or so that computer programs/spreadsheets etc. don't throw out errors.
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This case is a bit different to those two in that we can *adopt a convention*. We can choose our convention be either 'round up' or 'round down.'
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A sign of mathematical maturity is to realise that not all questions have answers, e.g., what is the largest number? e.g., what is the smallest positive real number?
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Interesting question to consider. There are two parts to this. Firstly, 0.499999... is equal to 0.5. Thus, the answer to your question must be the same as what your answer would be if you had written 0.5.
Now, *there is no nearest integer to 0.5*.
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The turd that won't flush.
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Johnson word cloud:
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their?
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Usual story:
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Ever-reliable Johnson word cloud:
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Every accusation is a confession.
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"full political spectrum" cough, cough.
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They go to another school.
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I've eaten a bowl of alphabetti-spaghetti and shat out more coherent sentences than that.
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