I've just happened to read this question on MO (that of course has been closed) and some of the answers to a similar question on MSE.
I know almost nothing of nonstandard analysis and was asking myself if something like the sentence « 1−0.999… is a nonzero positive infinitesimal» could be easily expressed and proved in nonstandard analysis.
First of all, what is 0.999... ? If we take the usual definition as a series or as a limit of a sequence of rationals, then it will still be a real number and equal to 1 (I guess by "transfer principle", but please correct me if I'm wrong).
Instead, let's define
0.9N:=N∑i=19⋅10−i
where N∈∗N∖N is an infinite nonstandard natural number. This 0.9N is a legitimate element of ∗R, expressed as 0. followed by an infinite number of "9" digits.
What can be said about ϵN:=1−0.9N ? Is there an elementary proof that ϵN is a positive infinitesimal of ∗R ? (by "elementary" I mean just order and field axioms and the intuitive facts about infinitesimals, like that for x infinite 1/x is infinitesimal etc.; no nonprincipal ultrafilters & C).
Answer
We can use the geometric series formula:
0.9N=N∑i=19⋅10−i=9⋅10−1⋅1−10−N1−10−1=(1−10−N)
Since N is infinite, ϵN=10−N=1/10N is infinitesimal.
No comments:
Post a Comment