“Nonsense, you gullible old toad!” you are perhaps shouting to your screen. “Why should throwing out the numbers with 9’s make such a difference? We’ve still got all the other numbers!”
Again, I say: not so fast. You’re making a classic mistake. When you think of “numbers,” you’re only picturing little numbers.
“No I’m not!” you may say. “I’m thinking of big numbers. Huge numbers. Like 9 million, or 47 billion, or 228 trillion.”
Exactly my point: small numbers.
You see, the longer a number gets, the harder it is to avoid a 9. Every time you add a digit, you add a new opportunity for a 9. That might not feel like a big danger—after all, those 9’s will pop up only 10% of the time. But look what happens:
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