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3 proofs that 0.999... is the same as 1

First of all writing the number 0.999... isn't not valid but for the sake of this post let's allow it.

Proof 1:

This is probably the most easy to understand.

Let's assume:
x = 0.999...
Next we'll multiply both sides by 10, so we have:
10 x = 9.999...
Let's subtract
x
on both sides.
10 x - x = 9.999... - x
Since
x = 0.999...
we get:
9 x = 9.999... - 0.999... = 9
We now can divide each side by 9 because it's not equal to zero and we get:
x = 1

Because we assumed that
x = 0.999...
and we have that
x = 1
that means that
1 = 0.999...

Proof 2:

Because the real numbers are dense, that means that you can find always a real number between two real numbers. For example we can use the arithmetic mean:
(a + b) / 2
Let's assume that
0.999... ≠ 1
. That means that with the arithmetic mean we can find a number in between, with that we would get
0.999...5
? Which isn't a real number, there is nothing like a "last digit". And even it there was, that number wouldn't be in between 0.999... and 1. That means that our initial assumption is wrong thus 0.999... is equal to 1.

Proof 3:

This is basically the actual proof because it's per definition the same. Let's look at what we mean when we write 0.999... it means that ever digit after the 0 is 9. Let's rewrite that.
0.999... = 0.9 + 0.09 + 0.009 + ...
We can rewrite that further to
= 9 * 0.1 + 9 * 0.01 + 9 * 0.001 + ...
We can add "0" since it doesn't change the value, or more specifically let's add 9 and subtract 9. With that we get:
= 9 * 1 + 9 * 0.1 + 9 * 0.01 + 9 * 0.001 + ... - 9
Let's rewrite it again
= 9 * (1/1) + 9 * (1/10) + 9 * (1/100) + 9 * (1/1000) + ... + 9
= 9 * (1/10)^0 9 * (1/10)^1 + 9 * (1/10)^2 + 9 * (1/10)^3 ... + 9
We can pull 9 outside of the sum to get:
= 9 * [(1/10)^0 + (1/10)^2 + (1/10)^3 + ...] - 9
To write it a bit more abstract we get:
That this is 9 times the sum from i = 0 to infinity over (1/10)^i and from that we subtract 9 again.
This sort of sum is called geometric series, it's of the form:
The sum from i = 0 to infinity over q^i. There's a formula for the result of the sum if |q| < 1:
1/(1-q)
In our case q = 1/10 which is smaller than one, so we can use that formula here and we get:
= 9 * [1 / (1 - q)] - 9
with q = 1/10 we have:
= 9 * [1 / (1 - 1/10)] - 9
When we simplify it we get
= 9 * [1 / (9/10)] - 9 = 9 * [10 / 9] - 9 = 10 - 9 = 1
Thus by writing 0.999... it's the same as 1. And because that's ambiguous, it's not allowed to write it so that every number written as digits is unique.
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Luke73 · 26-30, M
That's what I've done in my third proof. The convergence of the series is rather simple with the formular for the geometric series aswell as the limit of it.

I would disagree with your last part, because it would be the same as saying that the limit of 3.14... is pi, 3.14... is the number pi.
helenS · 36-40, F
@Luke73 The limit of "3.14..." is π, but it's much more complicated because π is transcendental. In other words, we don't know π.
Luke73 · 26-30, M
@helenS When looking at 0.999... as a real number it doesn't matter if it's rational, or transcendental. It's just a number.

But I disagree, 3.14... is pi, it's an infinite sequence of digits which is exactly the number.
helenS · 36-40, F
@Luke73 Please keep in mind that an infinite series of digits (the "actual inifinity") does not exist. If you disagree, prove its existence by writing it on a piece of paper.
Luke73 · 26-30, M
@helenS pi is a real number. And every real number can be represented by an (in)finite series of digits. And with that pi can be too. There's even a formular I think that gives you the n-th digit of pi in a specific base.
helenS · 36-40, F
@Luke73 As of July 2024, π has been calculated to 202 trillion decimal digits. (2x10^{14}). But so what, that's just a droplet within the ocean of infinity.

π is believed to be a "normal number", which would mean that Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is ASCII-coded somewhere in its sequence of digits, and also a "Hamlet" where Ophelia is called Helen, and one where Hamlet kills Achilles. No rigorous proof has been given so far to the best of my knowledge.
Luke73 · 26-30, M
@helenS My point was that real numbers have an infinite series of digits as their representation and that's something different than a limit.
helenS · 36-40, F
@Luke73 ... and my point was that an actual infinity does not exist, and it's not needed either, because the limit of an infinite sequence exists.
Luke73 · 26-30, M
@helenS What do you mean with actual infinity?

There are numbers that have infinite amount of digits.
helenS · 36-40, F
@Luke73 I'll reply later.
helenS · 36-40, F
@Luke73 There is really only potential infinity, in which an algorithm generates a sequence with no terminating element, so each individual step is achieved in a finite number of steps. That's the meaning of an "infinite" series – it simply has no end.
In many favorable cases it's possible to assign a limit L to an infinite series, and to prove that L is the limit, by using only a finite sequence of steps.
In this sense, the number 1 is the limit of the series "0.9; 0.99; 0.999; (...)"
You may also think of a single real number as the limit of an ever-decreasing interval around that number. It's not necessary for the sequence to "reach" the limit; in fact the limit will never be reached. It cannot be reached because an infinite number of steps would be necessary to reach it.

PS I sort of remember that "actual" infinity plays an important rule in set theory, of which I have no clue.
Luke73 · 26-30, M
@helenS I agree with you that 1 is the limit of the sequence 0.9; 0.99; 0.999... But I disagree that a number is the same as a series.

I'm not 100% sure if it's completely right but if you just look at the interval [0;1] and you assume that the digits each numbers represent are a limit to that, then they would be countable because you would just reiterate over every digit at each decimal place. That's not possible though because the real numbers are not countable.