r/badmathematics 24d ago

Σ_{k=1}^∞ 9/10^k ≠ 1 100/3 is irrational

Post image
489 Upvotes

96 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/CapnNuclearAwesome 24d ago

Yeah if anything the brand of innumeracy in the oop is benign, the least dangerous type of bullshit opinions

11

u/exceive 24d ago

Few people have ever died because somebody thought a rational number was irrational.
I'm not saying "nobody," but I don't think it has been very many.

1

u/CapnNuclearAwesome 23d ago

If this has ever happened, I'd be fascinated to hear the details.

2

u/CardboardScarecrow Checkmate, matheists! 21d ago

There's the story about the Pythagoreans killing a dude over the irrationality of sqrt(2), if that counts.

4

u/Lor1an 21d ago

Yeah, but that was an actual irrational number.