>>6
0.999... isn't a number, 8 isn't a number, IV isn't a number, none of these things are numbers. I think people are arguing over what symbols mean, not numbers. Numbers are concepts unto themselves. Obviously the symbols 0.999... and 1 aren't the same thing, because christ, look at them. Not so obvious is what is meant by the symbol 0.999..., series or limit. While it is not intuitive, the symbology of decimal fraction digits has come to be intertwined with the definition of real numbers as limits, and so on that basis we say that 0.999... and 1 are symbols for the same number.