Question

If you start with 1 and repeatedly multiply by 1/2, will you reach 0? Explain why or why not.

Answer 1

nope

Explanation:

1 multiplied by 1/2 just equals 1/2 since it's being multiplied by one, it wouldn't matter if you kept multiplying 1/2 either because the numerator will stay the same regardless, and the denominator just gets bigger and bigger since you're multiplying by two. if the numerator wasn't 1 then I'm sure there's a possibility, but in this scenario, it's not.

Answer 2

Answer: You will reach 0

Explanation:

Yes, if you start with 1 and repeatedly multiply by 1/2, you will reach 0.

To see why this is the case, let's consider the following sequence of numbers:

1 * (1/2) = 0.5

0.5 * (1/2) = 0.25

0.25 * (1/2) = 0.125

0.125 * (1/2) = 0.0625

0.0625 * (1/2) = 0.03125

As you can see, each time we multiply by 1/2, the result is half of the previous number. Because any number multiplied by 0 is 0, we will eventually reach 0 if we keep multiplying by 1/2.

Therefore, if you start with 1 and repeatedly multiply by 1/2, you will reach 0.