Resource How to divide by 0 without collapsing the universe?

[Judah]

Surely you have been bombarded with the idea that it is not possible to divide by 0, which is how it is written in the rules of mathematics, blah blah blah, and of course dividing by 0 usually brings up some problems, for example suppose that one divided by 0 was a real number "a", so this means that a * 0 = 1 but it also turns out that a * 0 = 0, so 1 = 0, what is happening here? Well, it can't be divided by 0, right? Well, the truth is that you can, but not so happily.

1 match to 0 cannot be a real number a priori, another way of looking at it is the following, think about the function 1 match by x, as we want to see what happens in the hypothetical case in which x is equal to 0, we can analyze the case in which the x is very small, for example 1 match at 0.1 is 10, 1 match at 0.01 is 100 and 1 match at 0001 is 1000, that is, when we get closer to 0 with a positive the result is getting bigger. and vice versa, if we approach 0 from the negative side, the result is smaller and smaller

 

[Insomniac]

high school calculus just clicked for someone

 

[Amumu]

Do it in a blackhole, preferably in its singularity.

 

[summers]

The problem is the limit as x approaches 0 in 1/x diverges.

 

[Suicidebydeath]

Carry the one, and er.. I forget the rest, probably.

 

[Life sucks]

Dividing by 0 creates a set which is impossible to use or define within elementary algebra.

However, there are some mathematical branches able to divide by 0.

Wheel theory - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[avoid_slow_death]

Jesus...just trying to wrap my head around this concept makes me suicidal...heh.

 

[GenesAndEnvironment]

It's infinity, right? What's the problem here?

 

[summers]

It's infinity, right? What's the problem here?

The problem is the limit diverges as you approach 0. It goes to +infinity as you approach from the right ie 1/.1, 1/.01, 1/.001, etc. It goes to -infinity as you approach from the left ie 1/(-0.1), 1/(-0.01), 1/(-0.001), etc...

Because the limit of the function is undefined (different values as you approach 0 from the left and right), we can conclude the value of 1/0 is also undefined.

 

[GenesAndEnvironment]

The problem is the limit diverges as you approach 0. It goes to +infinity as you approach from the right ie 1/.1, 1/.01, 1/.001, etc. It goes to -infinity as you approach from the left ie 1/(-0.1), 1/(-0.01), 1/(-0.001), etc...

Because the limit of the function is undefined (different values as you approach 0 from the left and right), we can conclude the value of 1/0 is also undefined.

Looked it up real quick. Seems complicated.

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

It's simple algebra, just change the word "zero" to refer to a variable that equals any other number in existence.