I might have just disproved math.

[Lord Beautiful]

Yes. You so totally disproved math. Because of this fantastic, unprecedented find, I think I shall sell my differential equations and quantum mechanics books to some poor sap who hasn't seen this brilliant proof. Lord knows I could use the extra cash.

Anybody else getting a troll vibe from this guy?

 

[FalloutJack]

-MATH!-

Math can only be disproven by philosophy. Of course, some math IS less math and more philosophy...and also some philosophers are extreme mathmaticians. So...only math can disprove math after all?

"Ayah! Magic can only be defeated magic!"

Nope, sticking with my guns. Philosophy.

 

[Twilight_guy]

You can never divide by zero and in the equation 0/x, x can be any number except 0 since, once again, you can't divide by zero. In fact my calculus teachers just love to mark off a point for not remembering to note that in a problem when its relevant.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

No. Even if you did math still works, just some things can't be proven with it. Tell the maths that is letting you type that post that its wrong.

 

[AngleWyrm]

When a fraction is declared as y/y = x, there is the division by zero problem. y/y equals 1 at all points except 0. But the exact same formula can be re-worded by multiplying both sides by y to get y = x * y.

If we then substitute 0 in place of y, it becomes 0 = x * 0, a true statement for any value of x. Nothing is the same as having no amount of anything.

 

[thewaever]

Everyone who says "you cannot divide by 0" has never taken calculus.

So, I have an interesting math based question. If you don't like/hate math or don't understand basic algebra(I understand if you don't) just hit the big THE ESCAPIST logo in the corner ...snip... 0/0 also then x=0
-If you fallowed so far and remember that x can be any number then that means zero can also be any and every number. So 0 can now equal 5 or any other number.

I realize something is most likely wrong here.
So tell me escapist, Did i Disprove math?

None of your math is incorrect, but your conclusion is slightly off.

What you are doing here is better dealt with with calculus than algebra, but the short version is this:

First, you are correct in saying that 0 divided by 0 MIGHT equal a number.

Calculus shows that 0 divided by 0 has four possible answers.
Those answers are 0, 1, undefined, or infinity.

It all depends on what the actual value of 0 is.


So, no, you did not disprove math. What you actually did was discover some very developed mathematical ideas.

 

[FEichinger]

0 / 0 = x | * 0

0 = 0 * x

=> x e C

This is the correct path for what you did.

Now comes an interesting thing about what you did: You divided by x.

0 / x = 0

Dividing void by any element of C, though, does yield void again, as dividing the eternal nothingness yields ... again: eternal nothingness.
You cannot define x this way, as - again - any outcome is possible.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

0/0

Well there's your problem...
[image/]http://www.demotivationalinc.com/files/photo/1/division-by-zero-it-just-happened-demotivational-poster-640.jpg[/IMG]
Seriously, what did that house ever do to you?

 

[Spaloooooka]

This is why you don't divide by 0!!!!! it doesn't work!!
It's just a mathematical rule. You just proved everything everyone ever says about maths. ever!

 

[Iron Mal]

So, I have an interesting math based question. If you don't like/hate math or don't understand basic algebra(I understand if you don't) just hit the big THE ESCAPIST logo in the corner and that will bring you home.

I wanted to know zero divided by zero equals. I tried to do at algebraically. This is what I did:

-The answer I was trying to get will be represented by x
0/0=x
-I times both sides by zero
0=0x
-This equals out to be 0=0 because anything times 0 is 0.
-This proves that x can be any number. for example if 5=x than 0=5*0 still is 0=0
-I rearrange 0=0x to be:
0/x=0
-Now since x can be any number now lets say x=0
-That makes this:
0/0=0
-And since x=0/0 (Right in the beginning^) and 0=0/0 also then x=0
-If you fallowed so far and remember that x can be any number then that means zero can also be any and every number. So 0 can now equal 5 or any other number.

I realize something is most likely wrong here.
So tell me escapist, Did i Disprove math?

No, I'm not even very good at algebra but I'm fairly certain that isn't how it works.

x can be any number but by putting '=0' next to it you're already saying that it's 0 (you've already denoted it's value).

Even if you were onto something there I would still say that's far from 'disproving math' (it's a tad more complex than that).

In order to 'disprove math' you would theoretically have to show that every mathematical theory out there is incorrect (which in itself would require you to use math which would in turn show the validity of maths making your entire endevor pointless).

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

-MATH!-

Math can only be disproven by philosophy. Of course, some math IS less math and more philosophy...and also some philosophers are extreme mathmaticians. So...only math can disprove math after all?

"Ayah! Magic can only be defeated magic!"

Nope, sticking with my guns. Philosophy.

Im pretty sure actual guns could disprove math as well. No ones going to try argue with your theories when threatened with the prospect of becoming swiss cheese.

OT: I've only just passed IGSCE math and I can tell that this is wrong. Not because I know math incredibly well, but more because every time I see a statement like this I know that people who are paid to do this have already analyzed the problem and declared it false.

 

[Naeras]

You can't divide by zero.
Ever.
It's that simple.

 

[ChildishLegacy]

0/0 isn't defined, so you can't just let x= 0/0.
Try learn something about limits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_of_a_function
And then think this through.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

Here's something I learned.
If you think you just disproved or revolutionised maths with a simple calculation, you did something wrong.
for example, you said x is the number you're trying to work out. half-way through, you make it 'work out' by defining x yourself.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

I like the bit with the math

 

[Ledan]

So, I have an interesting math based question. If you don't like/hate math or don't understand basic algebra(I understand if you don't) just hit the big THE ESCAPIST logo in the corner and that will bring you home.

I wanted to know zero divided by zero equals. I tried to do at algebraically. This is what I did:

-The answer I was trying to get will be represented by x
0/0=x
-I times both sides by zero
0=0x
-This equals out to be 0=0 because anything times 0 is 0.
-This proves that x can be any number. for example if 5=x than 0=5*0 still is 0=0

From the beginning x could be any number. X is an undefined variable, representing any number.

-I rearrange 0=0x to be:
0/x=0

Yup, 0 divided by any number is 0.

-Now since x can be any number now lets say x=0
-That makes this:
0/0=0
-And since x=0/0 (Right in the beginning^) and 0=0/0 also then x=0
-If you fallowed so far and remember that x can be any number then that means zero can also be any and every number. So 0 can now equal 5 or any other number.

I realize something is most likely wrong here.
So tell me escapist, Did i Disprove math?

Nope. The problem arises when you said "lets say x=0".
0/0=0 is an assumption.
We could also say that 0/0= 38. you said x=0/0 in the beginning yes, but your final solution is an assumption, you don't know that x=0. It could just as well be 42.

-If you fallowed so far and remember that x can be any number then that means zero can also be any and every number. So 0 can now equal 5 or any other number.

Um.. no. X is an undefined variable, so it is an unknown number. X could be 0, but that doesn't mean that 0 IS x. x=0, 0=0, 3=0.
One of these is true, one is unknown, and one is incorrect.

... its kinda hard to explain. Basic point: you have an unproven assumption.

 

[Ledan]

So if 0/0=x and 0/0=0 then 0 does not equal x? I don't understand what you mean, please elaborate. I actuality want to understand why this is wrong past the usual argument of "Well you just cant divide by zero" That might be true but i have yet to find a person to tell me why I cant.

Yes, that's the part that is incorrect. You did not prove that 0/0=0, you assumed that it was. You could have assumed that 0/0=3. Therefore x would be 3, but again this is an assumption.

 

[Pinkamena]

If division by 0 was allowed, you could prove a lot of stuff. Like a ball having infinite volume.

 

[FalloutJack]

-MATH!-

Math can only be disproven by philosophy. Of course, some math IS less math and more philosophy...and also some philosophers are extreme mathmaticians. So...only math can disprove math after all?

"Ayah! Magic can only be defeated magic!"

Nope, sticking with my guns. Philosophy.

Im pretty sure actual guns could disprove math as well. No ones going to try argue with your theories when threatened with the prospect of becoming swiss cheese.

OT: I've only just passed IGSCE math and I can tell that this is wrong. Not because I know math incredibly well, but more because every time I see a statement like this I know that people who are paid to do this have already analyzed the problem and declared it false.

"This...statement...is...false. Don'tthinkaboutit! Don'tthinkaboutit!"

*Looks down at guns, then back at the post, then down at the guns again, then grins*

I've constructed a logical hypothesis for solving my problems with violence!

OT: I always felt that dedicated mathmaticians were essentially paid to create highly-elaborate problems and then watch others attempt to unravel them. I believe it's fair that I started calling bullshit when we started on imaginary numbers, as though working with ones that actually exist wasn't good enough. It's at about...that point right there that math becomes a bit of an ass-pull philosophy and less of a science, unless of course you mean the kind of science that is all theory and no possible proof.

The thing about philosophy is that it's brilliant and completely ridiculous all at once, and math's inexorable link with it gives that subject the same quality. It holds a double-standard of being both logical and not. In philosophy, you can hammer out some very depthy thoughts and meditations about anything in the world...and yet you can also defeat the purpose with one dismissal of "That argument would not fit in with the perception I am conveying", even if...you know...it DOES. Similarly, math is this very precise and intricate thing right up until you start building things into it that are NOT precise and intricate that cause paradoxes by design, for the express purpose of making X not equal Y. And then, you ASK why!

"What is it all for?", I ask sometimes. Math has some very practical and profound applications in mostly everything we do. SOMEWHERE in there, it is true, in essense. But then you add on some bells and whistles that seem there for their own sake, without a real reason other than to be bells and whistles and so on. And...funny story. A bit of philosophy for you. Math is creating a universal map to understand said universe, but it does not actually know the universe. The universe actually makes no distinction if two and two equal four, since it...just IS. We are, therefore, creating our OWN universe in the universe, which is an effect of post-modernism long before we were into ANY modernism.

Yeah, I do profound. Next week, I'll tell you how I proved that god can be an asshole and ace one of my courses doing just that.