Meanderings : 7,000 posts

[Decimator]

Hmm, divide 2 by zero, i guess i'm doing pretty good.  I have an infinite number of times their post...if that makes any sense...  Oh well, if it doesn't make sense then it'll just crash your brains with a divide by zero error.

[Grimm]

Technically you can't devide anything by nothing. Dunno why, just one of those 'laws of math'.

[Malevolent]

Technically you can't devide anything by nothing. Dunno why, just one of those 'laws of math'.

True Grimm. You can only divide zero by another number, which of course gives you zero. If you divide a number by zero, it becomes undefined. To prove this, get a calculator and divide by zero; you'll get an error. WEWT!

EDIT: Added a word so it made sense!

[Decimator]

Bah, you guys have too much error protection.

[a civilian]

To prove this, get a calculator and divide by zero; you'll get an error.

True, but the error message reads "Infinite Result."

[Dirty Harry Potter]

another way to explain it, how can you divide something into X number of '0-parts'...?

[Grimm]

If I have 1 apple, and I divide that 1 apple between 0 people...

Something like that was the example my pre-calculus teacher gave us.

[Uranium - 235]

If I have 1 apple, and I divide that 1 apple between 0 people...

Something like that was the example my pre-calculus teacher gave us.

.. then you still have an apple, just no one gets it... so the answer would be.... i?

[BobTheJanitor]

No, i is the square root of a negative apple.

Or, possibly, applesauce. Higher maths make me hungry.

[Malevolent]

No, i is the square root of a negative apple.

Or, possibly, applesauce. Higher maths make me hungry.

But would the square root of -2 be i times the square root of 2? So it wouldn't just be i for the square root of a negative apple.

[a civilian]

If the inability to explain division by zero is sufficient reason to deem it impossible, explain division by fractions, or multiplication by fractions.  Explain, also, multiplication and division by negative numbers.  Or are they, too, impossible?

And while we are on the topic of i, what is the square root of negative i?

[sonic]

uuhh........some kind of negative apple sauce?

[lolfighter]

No wonder people find maths boring. Gimme chemistry with its brightly coloured liquids, bunsen burners and strange odours any day.

"Chemie ist wenn es qualmt und stinkt
Fysik ist wenn es nicht gelingt."

[Grimm]

I like any science that I can get my hands on and experiment with, whch, unfortunately, hasn't been the kind of science at my school. Most of it is either loads of textbook work (biology) or loads of math work (chem and physics).

[Uranium - 235]

If the inability to explain division by zero is sufficient reason to deem it impossible

I dunno people still believe in God...

[BobTheJanitor]

Is there a law somewhere that states that all forum discussions must eventually gravitate towards a religious flame war? I don't really see the point of arguing it, but why even bring it up. You're playing with FIRE, son. FIRE!!!!!

[a civilian]

It seems to me that the only basic mathematical operations that might result in an undefined number are multiplication of zero by infinity, division of zero by zero, and division of infinity by infinity.  But perhaps even they result only in the simple number one.

[Grimm]

Zero times infinity would bebe zero, and infinity divided by infinity would be one.

[a civilian]

Zero times infinity would be zero

I can see your reasoning there, as normally any number times zero equals zero.  But I am seeing things differently.  I am seeing zero as the reciprocal of infinity.  This makes perfect sense because the reciprocal of a number that is very close to zero (10^-100, for instance) is a number that is very close to infinity (10^100).  Since any number multiplied by its reciprocal equals one, zero multiplied by infinity must equal one.

At first it seemed as if the result should be undefined, because it simply seemed logical that zero times infinity could conceivably equal any real number, but now it seems to make more sense when the result is one.

[Keyser59]

civilian you are thinking it terms of limits, where on the graph of y=1/x, the greater x becomes (aka infinity), the closer y comes to 0.

You cannot merely take a limit and start plugging that value in. The limit as x approaches infinity of y=1/x is 0, but that in no way means that (1/infinity) is 0.