Try looking at the methods available to a Range.
$ irb
irb(main):001:0> a = (1..9)
=> 1..9
irb(main):002:0> a.public_methods.sort
=> ["==", "===", "=~", "__id__", "__send__", "all?", "any?", "begin",
"class", "clone", "collect", "count", "cycle", "detect", "display", "drop",
"drop_while", "dup", "each", "each_cons", "each_slice", "each_with_index",
"end", "entries", "enum_cons", "enum_for", "enum_slice", "enum_with_index",
"eql?", "equal?", "exclude_end?", "extend", "find", "find_all",
"find_index", "first", "freeze", "frozen?", "grep", "group_by", "hash",
"id", "include?", "inject", "inspect", "instance_eval", "instance_exec",
"instance_of?", "instance_variable_defined?", "instance_variable_get",
"instance_variable_set", "instance_variables", "is_a?", "kind_of?", "last",
"map", "max", "max_by", "member?", "method", "methods", "min", "min_by",
"minmax", "minmax_by", "nil?", "none?", "object_id", "one?", "partition",
"private_methods", "protected_methods", "public_methods", "reduce",
"reject", "respond_to?", "reverse_each", "select", "send",
"singleton_methods", "sort", "sort_by", "step", "taguri", "taguri=",
"taint", "tainted?", "take", "take_while", "tap", "to_a", "to_enum",
"to_s", "to_yaml", "to_yaml_properties", "to_yaml_style", "type",
"untaint", "zip"]
And there we have it to_a