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division by zero: is it really undefined?!

Started by April 22, 2003 09:50 PM
74 comments, last by Grizwald 21 years, 5 months ago
quote: Original post by higherspeed
I think that perhaps this topic should be laid to rest now. Also Gauler, although I agree with you that what most of what has been said is rubbish, I think you have to remember that most people have only studied applied maths. I''ve only done a small amount of pure maths at A-Level involving groups. I''ll be doing plenty of algebra next year at Uni though. But most people don''t have the benefit of any course, so don''t seem surprised when they don''t understand what exactly they''re doing.

You''re right. When I was taught algebra and calculus, everything was more or less just handed to me and I couldn''t accept much of it. I had a ton of questions which nobody answered. Finally, one of my teachers was extremely knowledgable and answered all my questions. I learned it all backwards, hard stuff first, then applied what I knew to the basics. It really helped. Maybe it will help other people.
The root of confusion is confusion... I guess. I just made that up. Sorry if I sounded like a jackass.
Hmmm... I just thought of something. I was always tought that anything divided by zero is impossible because you cannot solve it algebraicly. I think it was coffeemug that mentioned this as well. However, x = 0/0 is solvable.

x = 0/0
x * 0 = 0

This is true. So shouldn''t 0/0 be the only division by zero that should exist?

- Jay


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0/0 isn't uniquely defined, as it can equal literally ANYTHING.

Same thing with oo/oo.

Sometimes these things pop up in calculus when dealing with limits...but they aren't numbers in the sense that i (square root of negative one) is.

[edited by - SpaceRogue on May 7, 2003 8:51:24 PM]
just a question, why didn''t those that wrote what to return on a 0/1 expression that it will always return 0 instead of giving me a god damn exception?

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Possibly, because the infinity / undefined data type wont fit into your little 32 bit real number data type

Perhaps you should try type casting :D

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[edited by - kingy on May 8, 2003 9:14:08 AM]
“If you try and please everyone, you won’t please anyone.”
i think that this shows that the people visiting this site have a selfish view of mathematics, BEFORE posting, think at what you write.


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quote:
division by zero: is it really undefined?!

Yes, 0 fits into everything indefinatly (I think that makes sense).


quote: Original post by SpaceRogue
0/0 isn''t uniquely defined, as it can equal literally ANYTHING.


I never really considered that.


quote:
what about the square-root of -1?

Never because
(-) * (-) = (+)     != (-) 




Hey guys, the equation to exactly Pi:
Pi = 0 / 0 




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sqrt(0) has a definition, but your puny minds don''t have the ability to describe it. I could explain but your head would implode.
One good way to determine the value of an equation: f(x)/g(x) is to create a new equation: A = f(x)/g(x), and now take the natural log of A. So:

ln(A) = ln(f(x)/g(x)) = ln(f(x)) - ln(g(x)) which then becomes a bit easier to work with especially since the ln(0) is defined as -infinity. So if you have the equation of 0/0 you can simply turn it into ln(A) = ln(0) - ln(0) = -infinity - (-infinity) which is: infinity - infinity, which is undefined.

So you end up with ln(A) = undefined, so A is undefined, and subsequently 0/0 = undefined.

This little idea works to get an easy idea of the value of most "interesting" equations.


[edited by - haro on May 8, 2003 7:34:11 PM]
That doesn''t solve anything at all. log(0) is not -infinity. It is also undefined.

Cédric

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