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For all the reasons stated. Joel Send a noteboard - 28/04/2011 06:15:27 PM
The internet tells me that 0/0 is undefined. Why isn't it one? Isn't anything divided by itself one? How about ?/? ?

Its 4:40 in the morning and I need an answer to this question. (8

I brought this one up in HS and every honors math teacher had a different approach.

Algebraically, if we set it up as x=0/0 then 0=0x, which is true for any and all values of x.

If we use calculus to replace 0 with a variable x that approaches 0 we can put it two different places, which kinda makes things worse. Lim x/x as x?0 is 1; until/unless x actually REACHES 0 it's always 1. Lim 0/x as x?0 is 0; again, until/unless x reaches 0 it always will be. Lim x/0 as x?0 is our old friend Mr. Undefined; until/unless x reaches 0 it can't be anything else and, as is hopefully becoming clear, things don't really improve then. If you want to get fancy and use the lim 1/x as x?? for 0 we get lim (1/x)/ (1/x) as x??, or 0/0=lim x/x as x??=1.

Logically, how many times can nothing be divided among nothing? Depending perspective, as many as you like, because there's no place to divide it, none, because there's nothing to divide, or exactly one, by definition.

0/0 is undefined because it has too many solutions, all in the eye of the beholder. I favor an algebraic answer that says 0/0=the set of all numbers, but that's ultimately no more or less right than any other. It's one of the uncommon but significant cases revealing the fallacy that math can conveniently and precisely define everything, which is what makes it an interesting topic. Speaking of interesting topics yielding the set of all numbers, I find 3^-4 entertaining also.
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This message last edited by Joel on 28/04/2011 at 06:22:36 PM
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Math question - 28/04/2011 09:40:34 AM 790 Views
Both are undefined. - 28/04/2011 10:04:55 AM 653 Views
Because 0 divided by anything is 0. So the answer is both 1 and 0. Therefore, undefined. *NM* - 28/04/2011 10:08:44 AM 270 Views
This isn't really true. 0/x=0 when x!=0. - 28/04/2011 10:22:04 AM 626 Views
Yeah, I levelled down a bit on purpose. *NM* - 28/04/2011 10:36:47 AM 263 Views
Short answer: you can't divide by zero or infinity. Longer answer: you can if you use Calculus. - 28/04/2011 10:28:18 AM 619 Views
The limit of 0/x would be zero - 28/04/2011 01:55:03 PM 625 Views
I'm going to go with you on this one. *NM* - 28/04/2011 07:37:44 PM 266 Views
Oh, limits. - 28/04/2011 08:05:11 PM 657 Views
Re: Math question - 28/04/2011 02:21:04 PM 672 Views
Yes, late night math is not a good idea. - 28/04/2011 08:14:48 PM 707 Views
For all the reasons stated. - 28/04/2011 06:15:27 PM 615 Views
Re: For all the reasons stated. - 09/05/2011 05:56:59 PM 649 Views
Divide By Cucumber Error. Please reinstall universe and reboot. *NM* - 28/04/2011 08:11:22 PM 293 Views
But I threw away the disk! - 28/04/2011 08:15:25 PM 586 Views
Thanks, Hex. *NM* - 28/04/2011 08:44:35 PM 248 Views

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