this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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Science Memes

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Mythbusters (mander.xyz)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 44 points 5 months ago (9 children)

Being excited about being wrong because either way it's information

This literally is the basis of science that I think a lot of people misunderstand. Science doesn't prove anything conclusively. What scientists try to do is disprove the leading theory and when they can't, it adds to the pile of evidence that increases the likelyhood of the leading theory being correct. Even things that we're very, very, very sure are correct are still like 99.99999999999...% confirmed.

A good example that's often used to show how it's more important to try to disprove a theory rather than trying to prove it is the existence of black swans. It was long thought that all swans were white and every time someone saw a white swan, that idea was reinforced. But when someone actually went out of their way to go looking for a black swan, they found a bunch of them!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (8 children)

I feel it is my pedantic duty to inform you that 99.9... is equal to 100.

[–] Crowfiend -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Only if you're rounding. 99.9 is still 1/10 of a digit separated from 100, but it's not equal to 100 for good reason.

[–] chiliedogg 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But the "...." matters.

[–] Crowfiend -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It only signifies that the post-decimal nines are repeating infinitely. It still doesn't make 99.99999...=100 unless you intentionally round the value for some nondescript reason, and even then, rounding off isn't changing the value, only the perceived value for mathematical simplicity, not objective accuracy.

[–] chiliedogg 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

".9..." is repeating, but rational. So it's actually "1" . Let's do the math.

.9... / 3 = .3...

.3... = 1/3

1/3 x 3 = 3/3

.9... = 3/3

3/3 = 1

.9... = 1

Still not convinced? We'll use algebra instead of fractions.

0.9... = x

10x = 9.9...

10x - 0.9... = 9

9x = 9

x = 1

[–] Crowfiend -3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

So why is it represented as 99.999... Instead of just 100? It's because you're forgetting the fact that fractions and decimals are infinite depending on the magnification. 99.9999... literally goes on forever. That means that no matter how close it gets to 100, it will never be equivalent to 100.

It's like how you can know infinitely nothing and still think you know everything. 👀🫠

[–] candybrie 1 points 5 months ago

It's because we can write numbers in many ways. 9900/99 is 100 just as surely as 99.99... is.

[–] Qli -1 points 5 months ago

Love how you fight this to the death in a thread where people are discussing how a scientific mindset is so important.

See: https://lemmy.world/comment/10840766

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