Purpose To show that the notion of geometric addresses, developed
in our study of IFS, can be adapted to provide a visual interpretation
of decimals illuminating some troublesome properties of decimals, for
example, why 0.199999 ... = 0.200000 ... . |
Materials Paper and pencil, a ruler with an inch and a centimeter scale |
Background |
Procedure Use a ruler to subdivide a line segment into pieces of a given length.
Attach an address to each piece. Subdivide each of these pieces in the same fashion.
Attach an address to each of these smaller pieces. |
Sample For the sample we use the
centimeter scale; for the exercise we use the inch scale
because this allows a greater number of subdivisions without eye strain. |
Conclusion |
Exercises |