Poll: Can YOU divide by zero?

[Halceon]

Yes, but it depends on the function given. If it's y=1/x, then you can't divide by zero because the limits coming from either side of the graph don't equal each other:

Lim
x-->0+ (1/x) = ∞

Lim
x-->0- (1/x) = -∞

However if you take y=1/(x^2), then you can take the limit because the limits are both the same. In this case dividing by zero will give you infinity. If you take calculus you'd understand this a bit better.

Lim
x-->0+ (1/(x^2)) = ∞

Lim
x-->0- (1/(x^2)) = ∞

This needs to be seen again and again.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

I never understood why you couldn't divide zero by zero. You're dividing nothing into no parts so you have nothing. Right? But no it doesn't work that way. Phooie...

 

[Spencer Petersen]

If you want to overthink it, you can apply L'Hopital's rule to it if the 0 is represented as a limit.

IE lim x->10 for (x/(10-x)

In common math it would mean 10/0, unsolvable, but L'Hopital's rule means that you may represent each function as its derivative, x becomes 1, 10-x becomes -1, so the answer is -1.

/mind blown

 

[SinisterGehe]

Logically you can, let me give you philosophical example.
In each room we have 5 people, each room gets a bread to be equally shared. In one room there is no-one inside but thew room also gets a bread. So we have a room with no-one inside and the bread inside needs to be shared by everyone. so 1 bread / 0 people... 1/0=1 then ^^. Ofc this doesn't follow the rules of real theoretical math.

 

[SuperCombustion]

and tear a hole in the universe? ARE YOU KIDDING?!

 

[Baron Von Evil Satan]

I tried to once. But my paper burst into flames. So, no. No I can't.

 

[lacktheknack]

You can divide by zero easily enough. Can you get a result?

No. 1/0 != infinite. Infinite groups of 0 = 0, not 1.

Can you? Yes. Will you get an answer? No.

Should you try?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ku6SPRq8054/TGnWBQfBKJI/AAAAAAAAAvM/5bwQGaKCneo/s1600/divided+by+zero.jpg

 

[randomsix]

Yep, i can, it's just gives you the numeric value of "infinity".

This. You can divide by zero and infinity[footnote]Using limits.[/footnote]. What you can't do is divide zero by zero, or infinity by infinity.

That's because infinity isn't a number so division is not defined over it.

 

[lacktheknack]

I get infinity.

So the dividing by zero meme is irrelevent and Chuck Norris isn't fucking funny.
BAM.

How did you get infinite?

0 x infinite = 0.

You can't have infinite groups of zero equal anything greater or less than zero. Thus, the meme still works.

Although Chuck Norris isn't funny, correct.

 

[Evil the White]

Through all of my education, I've always been told that I can't divide by zero, but my question is: can YOU?

As a maths student, this is the official answer:

1 divided by 0 = infinity.
Infinity times 0 = 1

 

[lacktheknack]

I can

0/0=1
its not that hard

You did it wrong.

0/0 = (-infinite, infinite). Or maybe (-infinite, 0) cup (0, infinite) if you're anal retentive.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

infinty x 0=-1
it's true it is provable using negative reciprocals
1 x (-1/1)=-1
2 x (-1/2)=-1
3 x (-1/3)=-1
...
infinty x (-1/infinity)=-1
1/infinty = 0 because the larger a number is you divide by the smaller your answer
-0=0 (well duh)
so infinity x 0 =-1

Infinity isn't a number. Its a concept for a never ending number.

this.

 

[gabe12301]

I will try 100/0 equals...ERROR ERROR ERROR *Head explodes*

 

[Novania]

Yay calculus!

 

[Zorg Machine]

if you have 5 apples and you give them to zero people, how many apples does each person have.
The answer doesn't exist as there are no people.

 

[Snarky Username]

You can take the limit as x approaches 0 to get an approximation, but never actually divide by 0. Without ending our universe, anyways.

 

[ziratha]

It depends on what area of study you are in. Division by zero tends to lead to a contradiction regardless of what you define it to be. Sometimes it is treated as being infinity (in the compacting of the complex numbers for example), sometimes it's not allowed.

By far the most common scenario I have seen is that one must define infinity times zero as either zero or infinity. For example in measure theory, one will define infinity times zero as 0. But in some other cases I vaguely recall, I believe I have seen it defined as infinity as well.

 

[Aardvark Soup]

Depends on what you divide by zero. If it is a computer's representation of a floating point number you can, and get infinity. When you use real numbers in mathematics however you simply can't (when you're using limits you're not actually dividing by zero but an extremely small number that is almost zero, if I understand correctly).

Of course when you start using imaginary and/or complex numbers it's an entirely different story [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_infinity].

 

[dark-amon]

I found a way, by it would break every rule of logic so I decided not to.

 

[cartographer54]

They way I was taught division was that if I had four cakes and shared them out between four people, everyone would have one cake.

If I have four cakes and share it with no one, I have four cakes.

Simple, really.

That would mean you're sharing it with 1 person: yourself.

And yes i can divide by zero