Goodness!

If you are wondering what I am so worked up about, I will explain in a moment. But be warned - what you read here may shock you; it may even turn the world as you know it upside-down.

This is no laughing matter.

This is math.

You don't have to be a genius in math to understand the basic concepts. 1+2=3, 3.5>3.1 and so on. And when you hear the number 0.9(repeating), everything you've ever known tells you that it is smaller than 1, right? I mean, after all, no matter how big you make the number (0.9999999999999999999999), it's never going to match up to 1. It's just not possible!

WRONG. According to my math teacher, who is like a math genius (though surprisingly not the only one in our school), in reality 0.9(repeating) does equal 1. And here is the proof he uses to back it up:

1) 0.9(repeating) is the same as 0.3(repeating) times by 3, right? And 0.3(repeating) when you put it into fractional form it becomes 1/3, right? If you aren't sure, check with your calculator. If you type in 1/3 it gives you 0.3(repeating). So if you add 1/3 to itself 3 times, which is multiplication, what do you get?

1/3

1/3

+1/3

--------

3/3

which equals 1.

It's it crazy? Is it creepy? It is, but it's true.

2) Here is the second reason he told us, although he had me a believer on the first one. If you take 0.9(repeating) and add any number to it, you will end up with greater than one. Don't believe me? Try the smallest number you can think of. What about 0.0000000000000000001. Remember that number.

0.999999999999999999999

+0.0000000000000000001

-----------------------------------

It seems to give you one! Horray, the world is right again!

But wait... it's o.9(repeating). Which means there are more 9's after it....

So as it turns out:

0.999999999999999999999

+0.0000000000000000001

-------------------------------------

1.0000000000000000000999999(repeating)

If you add even the tiniest number to it, you will get greater than 1. Which shows that it must be one. It must be.

SHOCKING!

Where does Mr. Murley come up with this? How can this be possible? It's not! Common math logic plainly states that it's not. In 0.9(repeating) the 9 just keeps continuing, it never should reach 1. And yet... it does. For some reason it does.

This is like saying that the 1+1=2 which have been drilled into you your entire life, was just proved to be false. How do you live with that? How can you go on?

Sometimes concepts are not easy to wrap our heads around. I find that a lot with stuff, especially when learning about God. Questions arise, and I try to figure it out with my own common logic. How could He possibly be everywhere at once, listening to everything, doing everything. And how does He let us be able to do what we want and when we mess up still make that into his plan? Even from the very beginning, I found it hard to wrap my mind around how God is able to just speak things into existence. I guess when using just common sense you tend to think of it in worldly terms - human terms. We ourselves can't do it, so how could it be possible that anyone else can? But funny thing about life: it is so much bigger than ourselves.

I remember someone talking about what heaven is like, and talking about how John says the streets are paved with gold and the sea glitters with diamonds or something like that (don't shoot me if I'm wrong haha I should really go and double-check, or better yet, read it again). And you think, oh well that sounds.. fancy? But really, John just got a glimpse of heaven, and he's trying to describe it in human terms. And he can't! He saw something infinite, something totally and incredibly amazing, and trying to put it down as finite, as something that we can understand. Because really, I don't think any of us on earth right now have ever seen heaven. I know I sure haven't. So poor John, left with this difficult task, does the best thing he can and uses the most glorious and precious things that the earth was considered to have. Gold now is pretty and all, but it's not really a big thing. I mean I have a gold necklace, and it's nice but in reality, something silver is more to my taste. White gold maybe? But back then, gold was tremendous! A whole different culture. And for entire streets to be PAVED with it - well that would've seemed pretty cool. And diamonds. Well I'm just guessing here, but if gold was a big deal, then diamonds would've probably knocked their socks off. I mean, it's very strong, very hard, and very pretty. And for entire seas to be filled with them... well if you have ever stood on the edge of a beach you get a glimpse on just how big the sea is. Can you imagine what John must've seen in real life if that was how he described it in limited terms? It's hard to wrap your mind around it.

Which reminds me, I totally went off topic there. Wow. Well seeing as it's almost 11 and I'm getting pretty tired (I've had no sleep for the past few weeks? Months? Years?!) so I guess I should be getting ready to go to bed.

P.S.

I just got a new calculator (a SHARP advanced scientific one, the EL-520W) and I'm trying to think of designs I can put on it, you know, to give it the little zip it needs. It's an upgrade from my other one, the EL-510R, which was also new (I only got it at the first of the year) because my last one somehow got lost in Walmart. But I had spent a lot of time working on my last one, and I admit I have some emotional attachment to it. On the back I had drawn a red kite flying over a city, the scene from the new Downhere CD and written a line from their song "Little Is Much," little is much when God's in it, and everything, as well as drawing a swirly sun, the same from the one before it, you know, as sort of a tribute. But I think I wasted all my creativity on that calculator and now can't think of what to put on my new one...

Actually when I was writing that out, the part about the swirly sun, I thought, well why not continue that? Not the sun I mean, but using a scene from the previous calculator - you know to keep it going. So since the sun is already duplicated, I might do the kite scene. And now the calculators will sort of lead into each other. Cool or what?

I am such a nerd.