[undotwa]

I'm no math genius. Would it be wrong to say the answer is infinity?

[d4nth3m4n]

yup.

[Luca Rescigno]

Infinity is not a number. Try making a graph of y=1/x and see what happens when x=0.

[turtle777]

Wrong.

The answer is #DIV/0. Ask Excel!

-t

[storer]

Cannot divide by zero.

[fromthecloud]

Undefined.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by undotwa:
I'm no math genius. Would it be wrong to say the answer is infinity?

If that were true, then infinity times zero would give you the number you started with. And that obviously isn't the case.

[BRussell]

It's illegal in most states to divide by 0.

[OSX Abuser]

0/Zero represents nothing and as such is not a number you can devide by.

[FulcrumPilot]

[ambush]

x/0 does not work since y*0=0.

[Ghoser777]

It doesn't mean anything to divide by 0. It does say something if you have a fraction where the denominator approaches 0. In fact, if you take 1/x, if you look at values of x from the right of 0...

1/2 = 0.5
1/1 = 1
1/0.5 = 2
1/0.05 = 20
1/0.005 = 200
...

1/x approaches infinity

If you look at values from the left of 0...

1/-2 = -0.5
1/-1 = -1
1/-0.5 = -2
1/-0.05 = -20
1/-0.005 = -200
...

1/x approaches negative infinity.

If you do the same thing for 1/x^2, you'll notice that both from the left and right, the equation approaches infinity as x approaches 0.

But the key thing is you cannot divide by 0 - you can only approach dividing by 0.

[wolfen]

IIRC, mathematicians have various proofs that seem to indicate that it must be possible to divide by zero -- they just don't know how. I thought that was pretty cool when I heard it. It was the same lecture where I heard the teacher say they can mathematically prove there are many more dimensions than we know how to account for empirically.

[Ghoser777]

Well... another way to look at is division by 0 is axiomatically inconsistency (I love big math words). The field axioms are violated if division by 0 is legal. In fact, the definition of division is really based on multiplication. So a/d = c iff a = dc, where a, b, and c are in the Real numbers. So if a/0 = c, that only works if a = 0c = 0. So a has to be 0, and c is allowed to be any number we like! Any choice of c satisfies 0 = 0c, so our solution is multivalued. So if all this is okay, then we can only divide 0 by 0 (can't divide 3 by 0), and the result is indeterminant (which actually hints a little at L'Hopital's rule in Calculus).

But I feel like I'm babbling now - division by zero just doesn't make any sense in the field of real numbers. In other number systems, fields , groups, rings, whatever.... maybe.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by FulcrumPilot:

D'oh - looks like I missed my cue here!

[Dale Sorel]

Originally posted by undotwa:
I'm no math genius. Would it be wrong to say the answer is infinity?

No, the correct answer is it's not allowed.

But for 1/x, in the limit as x approaches zero, the answer is in fact infinity.

And for 1/x, in the limit as x approaches infinity, the answer is zero.

[Ghoser777]

The limit as x approaches 0 of 1/x is not infinity - it's undefined. From the left it approaches -infinity, from the right it approaches infinity. The limit does exist for 1/x^2 though.

[Oneota]

Originally posted by Ghoser777:
[...] L'Hopital's rule in Calculus [...]

Gah!! All those college math classes that I had to take and hated are coming back at me! Gah!!! Damn you for making me remember John Holte lectures!

[undotwa]

The calculator in Mac OS X says 1/0 = Infinity, is Mac OS X wrong?

[kmkkid]

Originally posted by undotwa:
The calculator in Mac OS X says 1/0 = Infinity, is Mac OS X wrong?

The calculator in Windows XP says 1/0 = Cannot divide by zero. Is Microsoft wrong?





Chris

[storer]

Originally posted by undotwa:
The calculator in Mac OS X says 1/0 = Infinity, is Mac OS X wrong?

Windows calculator says Cannot divide by zero.

[Xeo]

Originally posted by Oneota:
Gah!! All those college math classes that I had to take and hated are coming back at me! Gah!!! Damn you for making me remember John Holte lectures!

Hahaha, oh man he is boring. I am lucky that I only had him one J-term. I somehow got out of having any other classes with him.

I have basically forgotten Calc at this point though. I do remember what limits are but I don't remember what a derivative is or what integrals are.

[Kenneth]

It didn't work on Google.

[Lancer409]

Originally posted by fromthecloud:
Undefined.

haha .. typical classroom answer

[Xeo]

You have an apple. You cut it into zero pieces. What do you have left?

[edit: After reading that, I've decided that this question is a mathematical koan and answering it will cause you to be enlightened.]

[olePigeon]

Warning, I suck at math. This is just from stuff that I've read.

From what I understand, there are certain instances where your variable can be both 1 and 0 at the same time, so you do divide by zero. This only occurs in weirdo situations in physics when dealing with spin, electrons, singularities, and imaginary particles faster than light (you can't have a lim -> 0 ... then go past 0, which is why it's imaginary.) However, at the quantum level of things, you can throw everything you know out the window. Special Relativity is not your friend!

Related to the above, depending on how you divide by zero, it's either positive infinity or both positive and negative infinity.

When it comes to real numbers, you can sudo due it with factorials. You can divide by 0!, but that's just considered 1.

[Oisín]

Originally posted by Xeo:
You have an apple. You cut it into zero pieces. What do you have left?

Either a computer that doesn't work, or lunch.

[olePigeon]

Originally posted by Xeo:
You have an apple. You cut it into zero pieces. What do you have left?

[edit: After reading that, I've decided that this question is a mathematical koan and answering it will cause you to be enlightened.]

But what if that apple doesn't have any volume? Now you're dividing 0 by 0.

[Rev-O]

Originally posted by Xeo:
You have an apple. You cut it into zero pieces. What do you have left?

[edit: After reading that, I've decided that this question is a mathematical koan and answering it will cause you to be enlightened.]

Been a long time since I've heard a good koan. Nice job!

[Xeo]

Originally posted by Rev-O:
Been a long time since I've heard a good koan. Nice job!

It's a hell of a lot better than "What's the sound of one hand clapping?" since clapping my fingers into my palm is easy for me.

[Rev-O]

Originally posted by Xeo:
It's a hell of a lot better than "What's the sound of one hand clapping?" since clapping my fingers into my palm is easy for me.

Yah, and the old "does a dog have a Buddha nature?" Most koans just suck.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
When it comes to real numbers, you can sudo due it with factorials. You can divide by 0!, but that's just considered 1.

But you need root access to do this?

[phantomdragonz]

1/0=Ziggy buggy doog

I did not spell that right, but extra points for knowing the reference!

Zach

[moonmonkey]

Originally posted by storer:
Windows calculator says Cannot divide by zero.

Neither can Tigers, you get a little warning sign.

[Xeo]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
But you need root access to do this?

[d4nth3m4n]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
But what if that apple doesn't have any volume? Now you're dividing 0 by 0.

but can something with no volume truly be called an apple? what defines an apple?

[OreoCookie]

It's not defined that easily.
Sometimes you defile it like this. The real/complex numbers are then `completed' by the abstract element infinity, but AFAIK it's not very useful.

[tooki]

What all the math whizzes here mean is: to a normal mortal, dividing by zero is an absolute no-no. You just can't do it, and anything telling you that something divided by zero is any answer at all is wrong.

Mortals, ignore this: My hunch is that Mac OS X's calculator is a floating-point calculator, and is actually calculating the limit of x/0, not x/0 itself, hence the infinity.

tooki

[AB^2=BCxAC]

I never let 0 divide anything. He always takes the big piece.

[MrSundberg]

Originally posted by wolfen:
IIRC, mathematicians have various proofs that seem to indicate that it must be possible to divide by zero -- they just don't know how. I thought that was pretty cool when I heard it. It was the same lecture where I heard the teacher say they can mathematically prove there are many more dimensions than we know how to account for empirically.

Hrrrmm...

What that professor was talking about was most likely string theory, just remember this though:

Just because something is mathematical doesn't automagicaly mean that it's physics. Negative energy and negative mass is one thing that's an mathematical consequence of our current physics formulas, yet iirc it doesn't exist. The fact that our world is so apt for being described in mathematical terms as it is, is one of the great mysteries of life and a big blessing to humanity.

[OreoCookie]

Originally posted by MrSundberg:
Hrrrmm...

What that professor was talking about was most likely string theory, just remember this though:

Just because something is mathematical doesn't automagicaly mean that it's physics. Negative energy and negative mass is one thing that's an mathematical consequence of our current physics formulas, yet iirc it doesn't exist. The fact that our world is so apt for being described in mathematical terms as it is, is one of the great mysteries of life and a big blessing to humanity.

That's not quite accurate. Negative energy solutions are usually the anti-matter solutions. These mathematical consequences are interpreted differently on the level of physics. You also have to be careful when renormalizing stuff (that's `subtracting infinity from infinity and getting something finite ). It is not trivial to note that these give physically meaningful solutions (the introduction of ordered products alone is a renormalization …).

Ok guys, I think this is a bit off topic QED/OFT is not part of the question.

What your professor was probably talking about that you can `add' infinity on an abstract level to a field (e. g. by means of equivalence classes; all sequences `converging' to infinity form an equivalence class; if your field is C, then you only add one infinity, if your field is R, then you have two (plus and minus infinity).

[GoGoReggieXPowars]

[olePigeon]

Edit: It's working now, messed up my joke.

[GoGoReggieXPowars]

No broken image tag here, white man.

[mitchell_pgh]

the answer is 1.22 gigawatts :-)