If we want 998, we can use 1/99980001 (we will obtain more exactly 0998). But this time 9998 will disappear for the same reason. 1/9801, 1/998001, 1/99980001, 1/9999800001, .... = no 98, no 998, no 9998, no 99998, ... Christian. -----Message d'origine----- De : math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] De la part de Joshua Zucker Envoyé : samedi 28 janvier 2012 06:06 À : math-fun Objet : Re: [math-fun] [EXTERNAL] Re: Fun with math: Dividing one by 998001 yields a surprising result On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 8:06 PM, Ray Tayek <rtayek@ca.rr.com> wrote:
i expected the last line to end in 997998999 instead of 997999000
It does end in 997 998 999 but then the next "three-digit" number is 1000, and after carrying the 1 you can see why it should be 997 999 000. Why can't we invent some three-digit bins that can hold numbers with more than three digits? --Joshua Zucker _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun