Gamer hit it exactly! The proof is amusing and brings up great discussions cocerning infinite decimals, but the fact is 39.99999... - 3.99999... is not exactly the same as 36.000...

Basically, you have an "Infinity minus 1" issue. We can make it work in a practical sense because we assume that the "limit as we approach infinity" is an absolute number rather than the theoretical "limit" that it truly is. The "Proof" makes an assumption that isn't truly proveable.

Posted by Jim C on 2003-07-18 05:52:30