From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnp4!ihlpb!bryan Newsgroups: net.math Title: 1 != .999... Article-I.D.: ihlpb.270 Posted: Tue Jan 25 13:17:26 1983 Received: Fri Jan 28 05:43:15 1983 Reply-To: bryan@ihlpb.UUCP (Bryan K. DeLaney) I was trying to say that it is possible to add something to .999... and come up with the number 1. No matter how far you carry it out, it will not equal 1; since it is always possible to get closer to something with out reaching it (1/2 1/4 1/8 1/16 etc). If you take the infinitely smallest portion of 1 and add it to the infinitely largest portion of 1 you will reach 1. Since .999... is the infinitely largest portion of 1 and .000...1 is the infinitely smallest portion of 1 , when added together you get 1. P.S. .000...1 may be wrong ;it shoud be 1/100... So the equation now reads .999... + 1/100... = 1.0