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Mu naught
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This may be an elementary question, but I've been thinking about it a little bit and wondering what other people thought.
First, let me say that I'm talking about a number line not as a set but in the more literal sense, like a partitioned line that might exist as the axis of a graph.
So, if you want to represent a number as a point on this line, you can do so by starting at zero, and moving a certain distance to a point which corresponds to n units, the direction depending on if it's positive or negative. So what about an irrational number? It seems to me that you'd have to approach some point on the line, but continuously move toward it at a slower and slower rate, moving a thousandth of a unit, then a millionth, then a billionth and so on, constantly moving but constantly slowing down and never actually reaching any fixed point on the line. Is this a sound conception?
This also raises questions about real life objects having lengths which we can calculate to be irrational, but that's probably another thread.
First, let me say that I'm talking about a number line not as a set but in the more literal sense, like a partitioned line that might exist as the axis of a graph.
So, if you want to represent a number as a point on this line, you can do so by starting at zero, and moving a certain distance to a point which corresponds to n units, the direction depending on if it's positive or negative. So what about an irrational number? It seems to me that you'd have to approach some point on the line, but continuously move toward it at a slower and slower rate, moving a thousandth of a unit, then a millionth, then a billionth and so on, constantly moving but constantly slowing down and never actually reaching any fixed point on the line. Is this a sound conception?
This also raises questions about real life objects having lengths which we can calculate to be irrational, but that's probably another thread.