If you were to use the pile analogy for, (divide into n piles) whne you put something in to 0 piles there is nothing there.
Math people: Why is n/0 undefined?
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Whitecloak
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- May 4, 2001
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Originally posted by: ohtwell
I know more than you, you little pissant!Originally posted by: ndee
What do YOU know?
: ) Amanda
I got your back Amanda :|
Cheers,
Aquaman
Okay because of the way algebra works. See if you have x=3/0 it has to equal 0x=3 with is impossible.
Cerb
Elite Member
- Aug 26, 2000
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As you get close to n/0, the result is increasingly close to an impossibly high number. n/0 will give you the opposite of 0. The opposite of nothing (and that is technically not infinity). It is beyind our minds and our math to get it, should it even be possible at all.
That is wrong. If n is not equal to 0, then n/0 = infinity, the pile anology would give you infinite number of piles, not 0 piles. See it this way, go to the beach with a cup. How many cups of sea water can you scoop before the sea dries up?
n/0 can be NaN (not a number), if n=0. The pile anology would give you NaP (not a pile) :laugh:
Originally posted by: ohtwell
I know more than you, you little pissant!Originally posted by: ndee
What do YOU know?
: ) Amanda
And that comes from the self proclaimed"Mistress of Sunshine"? I'm shocked!
Mister I-scan-500-magazines: I don't think she needs someone to cover her back
mugs
Lifer
- Apr 29, 2003
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Use your pile analogy but flip it around - if you divide n into piles of 0 items, how many piles do you have? You could have infinite piles and not exhaust n. That and as someone mentioned, division is the opposite of multiplication, and you can't multiply anything by 0 and get n, unless n is 0. Wait until you get to calculus.
If you divide n by 10 you get a result. Divide by 1 you get a larger result.... divide by .1 you get an even larger result... So n/0 = infinity. Since n/really really really small number approaches infinity.
It could be anything:
Let x = 0/0.
Multiply both sides by zero to get: 0 * x = 0
What number is x? Well, any number satisfies the above equation.
Therefore you could say that x = 0 as you do above, or you could equally correctly say x = 1 or x = 2 ...
Now you have a problem. If x is a number, it can't be 0 and 1 and 2 at the same time. Therefore 0/0 isn't a number and needs to be undefined.
That sounds like you want to get into limits.
For example, lim x->0 of x/x = 1 as both quantities approach the limit at equal rates.
However, lim x->0 of x^2/x = lim x->0 of x = 0,
while lim x->0 of x/x^2 = lim x->0 of 1/x diverges, approaching infinity.
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