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1/9998 = 0.0001 0002 0004 0008 0016 0032 0064 0128 0256..

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Re: 1/9998 = 0.0001 0002 0004 0008 0016 0032 0064 0128 0256..

#81

I gotta be that guy: Why is this the first post on the front page of Hacker News? Is basic arithmetic really so fascinating to the computer people?

In fact, you do not have to be that guy. Different people find different things interesting; just let it go.

True, however, I am also surprised that it's getting this much attention.

Re: 1/9998 = 0.0001 0002 0004 0008 0016 0032 0064 0128 0256..

#83
post #44
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The pattern will break down It doesn't actually: 4096 8193 6387 = 4096+8192 + 1 6384 + …

I noticed this on the last bit of wolframs display space also. The fact that it continues and is basically infinite sequence arithmetic overflow is insanely beautiful.

1/7 does it too. 14 28 56 128 <- too big

Re: 1/9998 = 0.0001 0002 0004 0008 0016 0032 0064 0128 0256..

#84
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pattern is not really breaking. What happens is that 16384 doesn't fit in a 4 digit space so it's first digit "1" jumps to 8192 and it becomes 8193. Then the next number (32768) add it's first digit "3" to 16384 and it becomes 16387 and so on, so the sequence appears strange after 4096: ...409681936387...

I think that's what you would call a break in a pattern though. Of course, the infinite series will stay infinite.

I agree, but what I took from it is that it continues to be defined by that series even after that point (just in a less recognizable way). It could have just been a remarkable coincidence that it follows that series for so long.

Re: 1/9998 = 0.0001 0002 0004 0008 0016 0032 0064 0128 0256..

#86

In high school, I was pretty fond of plugging 11^n to get rows of Pascal's triangle. It breaks down at row 5, but inserting 0's in the middle extends it (e.g. 101^n, 1001^n, 10001^n). 11^0 1 11^1 1 1 11^2 1 2 1 11^3 1 3 3 1 11^4 1 4 6 4 1

While bored in middle school algebra, I figured out on my TI-30 which number, raised to itself as a power, would equal 9.9999999E99 (not sure on the precise number of nines after the decimal point, but basically it flooded the screen with all nines).

56.96124843225 ^ 56.96124843225

Wolfram confirms that it's pretty close to a full googol. Of course, you can keep adding digits to the end of the number to make it even more precise. Maybe I'll write a script to do that.

Re: 1/9998 = 0.0001 0002 0004 0008 0016 0032 0064 0128 0256..

#88
post #53

In high school, I was pretty fond of plugging 11^n to get rows of Pascal's triangle. It breaks down at row 5, but inserting 0's in the middle extends it (e.g. 101^n, 1001^n, 10001^n). 11^0 1 11^1 1 1 11^2 1 2 1 11^3 1 3 3 1 11^4 1 4 6 4 1

On a vaguely similar, yet less practical note: 111,111,111 * 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 :)

On most pocket calculators, 11111111×= will yield 12345678. People are often surprised that that sequence is accepted. To me, it exposes something about the calculator's internal architecture.

It's also a useful self-test if you think the battery might be going.

Re: 1/9998 = 0.0001 0002 0004 0008 0016 0032 0064 0128 0256..

#89
I just put up a blog post covering this and a number of other interesting decimal expansions:

fibonacci: 100000000/99989999=1.000100020003000500080013002100340055...

integers: 1000000/998001=1.002003004005006...

square numbers: 1001000000/997002999=1.004009016025036...

explanations and proofs at: http://www.joefkelley.com/?p=635

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