Author Topic: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work  (Read 16530 times)

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Offline Hot_Dog

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Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« on: February 23, 2012, 12:37:49 pm »
Guys, please no "divide by zero" funny pictures on this topic.

Somebody gave me a good reason that 0/0 isn't valid.  But I can't remember what it was.

Offline yvan_dubois

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2012, 12:44:53 pm »
Because anything multiplied by 0 equals 0, you piece of shit.

Offline Jim Bauwens

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2012, 12:46:52 pm »
Warning, fake Juju.

Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2012, 12:49:39 pm »
Because anything multiplied by 0 equals 0

Technically that means that 0/0 should be "all real numbers."
« Last Edit: February 23, 2012, 12:49:53 pm by Hot_Dog »

Offline Scipi

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2012, 12:52:56 pm »
0/0, 0 can still go into 0 and ambiguous number of times. It can go into 0 1,2,3... ∞ number of times.

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2012, 01:00:57 pm »
Because 0/# should always be zero, but #/0 should always approach infinity.  It's very undefined.

Offline Dingus

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2012, 01:20:57 pm »
Note: The fake juju knows nothing about math.  Division by zero is not a defined operation because doing so can cause incorrect results.  Take for example
x(x-x)=x^2-x^2. Factor the right side and divide both sides by x-x and you have x(x-x)/(x-x)=(x+x)(x-x)/(x-x) Then canceling results in x=x+x which is x=2x. Finally, divide both sides by x and you have 1=2! The only mistake made was dividing by x-x which is zero, i.e., I divided by zero which caused the disastrous result of 1=2!

Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2012, 01:29:44 pm »
Note: The fake juju knows nothing about math.  Division by zero is not a defined operation because doing so can cause incorrect results.  Take for example
x(x-x)=x^2-x^2. Factor the right side and divide both sides by x-x and you have x(x-x)/(x-x)=(x+x)(x-x)/(x-x) Then canceling results in x=x+x which is x=2x. Finally, divide both sides by x and you have 1=2! The only mistake made was dividing by x-x which is zero, i.e., I divided by zero which caused the disastrous result of 1=2!

Now THAT makes sense.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2012, 03:52:52 pm »
Note: The fake juju is actually some idiot troll from Juju's school. He often trolls his blogs and Youtube channel with random weird stuff but it seems he found this site now. <_<

Offline Munchor

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #9 on: February 23, 2012, 04:02:50 pm »
Hahahaha, fake juju.



Maybe that was the pic you were looking for Hot Dog :P
« Last Edit: February 23, 2012, 04:03:05 pm by ephan »

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #10 on: February 23, 2012, 04:05:49 pm »
Ephan :P

Quote
Guys, please no "divide by zero" funny pictures on this topic.

Anyway I personally have no clue why 0/0 doesn't work, though, but what I think is that 0 by itself is nothing, so basically you divide nothing by nothing. However I think it's also because you multiply nothing by the infinity, but I'm not sure if the opposite of "infinity" is "nothing".

Offline Munchor

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #11 on: February 23, 2012, 04:08:09 pm »
This is how I always knew it. Let's say you have 6 candies to divide by 3 people, well, each person gets 2 candies.

But if you have 6 candies to divide by 0 people, well, that can't be done. It's not 0 candies for each person, because there are no people to give candies, so it's just impossible.

Offline Jim Bauwens

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #12 on: February 23, 2012, 04:12:05 pm »
It's infinite candies for nobody!!!! YAY CANDY CLONER

Edit (to give this post more value):
Dingus post is very interesting and is almost a proof that you can't devide by zero.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2012, 04:14:41 pm by jimbauwens »

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #13 on: February 23, 2012, 04:16:35 pm »
Oh right, I guess ephan's example kinda clears it up.

Offline Adriweb

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Re: Why doesn't zero divided by zero work
« Reply #14 on: February 23, 2012, 04:20:35 pm »
I just read that on Wikipedia, and it's pretty good :)
(warning : quite high level math...)

Quote
Abstract algebra
Any number system that forms a commutative ring — for instance, the integers, the real numbers, and the complex numbers — can be extended to a wheel in which division by zero is always possible; however, in such a case, "division" has a slightly different meaning.
The concepts applied to standard arithmetic are similar to those in more general algebraic structures, such as rings and fields. In a field, every nonzero element is invertible under multiplication; as above, division poses problems only when attempting to divide by zero. This is likewise true in a skew field (which for this reason is called a division ring). However, in other rings, division by nonzero elements may also pose problems. For example, the ring Z/6Z of integers mod 6. The meaning of the expression  should be the solution x of the equation 2x = 2. But in the ring Z/6Z, 2 is not invertible under multiplication. This equation has two distinct solutions, x = 1 and x = 4, so the expression  is undefined.
In field theory, the expression  is only shorthand for the formal expression ab−1, where b−1 is the multiplicative inverse of b. Since the field axioms only guarantee the existence of such inverses for nonzero elements, this expression has no meaning when b is zero. Modern texts include the axiom 0 ≠ 1 to avoid having to consider the trivial ring or a "field with one element", where the multiplicative identity coincides with the additive identity.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_by_zero#Linear_algebra )


Also :

Quote
To show how division by zero does not work with the rules or mathematics we can use the associative law of multiplication and the fact that 0x2=0


We can use the rules of arithmetic to show 0x2=0 as follows:
given 2 is defined as 1+1=2 then
M1 tells us that 0x2=2x0
D tells us that (1+1) x0 = 1x0 + 1x0
But M3 tells us that 1x0=0
so this equals 0+0
finally A3 implies 0+0=0



Now having proved 0x2=0 we can use this with M2 to give
1 = inf x 0 = inf x (0x2) = (inf x 0) x 2 = 1 x 2 = 2

Since 1 does not equal 2 then an inconsistency with the most basic rules of numbers and as such division by zero does not work with these rules.



M1: The commutative law of multiplication states:
ab=ba
for any two numbers a and b

M2: The associative law of multiplication states:
a(bc) = (ab)c
for any 3 numbers a, b and c

M3: The multiplicative identity:
1a = a
for any number a

D: The distributive law states:
(a+b)c = ac + bc
for any three numbers a, b and c

A3: The additive identity:
0+a=a
for any number a
« Last Edit: February 23, 2012, 04:23:42 pm by adriweb »
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