pokoko said:
From the same article: Although the real numbers form an extremely useful number system, the decision to interpret the notation "0.999…" as naming a real number is ultimately a convention, and Timothy Gowers argues in Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction that the resulting identity 0.999… = 1 is a convention as well: However, it is by no means an arbitrary convention, because not adopting it forces one either to invent strange new objects or to abandon some of the familiar rules of arithmetic.[47] A convention is the perfect word for it. Plenty of examples are given where this is not accepted across all math systems. That "lower primate" quote seems extremely narrow minded. |
And yet that Timothy Gowers explains well that refusing that "convention" would mean "invent strange new objects" or "abandon some of the familiar rules of arithmetic". So he clearly accepts it.
(That quote is about alternative number systems, so not the usual 1-9 that is the subjetc here)
