I might have just disproved math.

[Sarge034]

Sorry double post.

 

[Clankenbeard]

And the virtual beatdown was immense. OP, keep your hopes up. The world is a nicer place than you might suspect by reading a gaming website thread. I was once thoroughly thoroughly convinced that my numerical method for deriving pi was correct. I actually said out loud, "Maybe pi is wrong." before I spotted my error an hour or so later. (This was from a college graduate with a 3.88GPa in mechanical engineering.)

I am glad that I did not have easy access to the internet back then to have made such a dopey statement in traceable written format. Don't give up on the idea that something can't be done just because nobody has done it. (Recent point in case: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115697-10-Year-Old-Accidentally-Discovers-New-Explosive-Molecule )

0/3 = 0/1 it follows that 1=3
Sorry. Sorry. I wanted to throw in some zero tolerance gibberish too.

 

[ultrabiome]

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.

Imaginary numbers are just a name, they aren't actually any more imaginary than the real numbers.
Physicists use imaginary numbers to solve real problems every single day. Without imaginary numbers we wouldn't have the monitors you're using to read the posts people make on this site, they have very real and practical uses.

The same is true of a lot of maths. It may start as someone's "cool idea", but so many many advances in science have come from maths that someone just made up for the hell of it. If mathematicians waited until maths was useful before they came up with it, then our technology would be at least 50 years behind where it is today.

That part was actually a joke, the imaginery VS real bit. However, I'm going to need some citation on the part of you stating that imaginery numbers have an application beyond thought experiment. Since 'i' is literally representing a paradox, and that this is actually the tamest aspect of math acting less like science and more like philosophy, it smacks of carelessness. "We didn't feel like figuring out where this leftover piece of the puzzle actually comes from, so here, have a Lowercase-I." This is where math sort of falls short for me. I understand the logic you place behind it, pass the course, and move on...but it doesn't cry out as the pinnacle of precision anymore. And Discreet Mathimatics is very much this. It's the metaphysics of math that gives way to some interesting thoughts, but it's not logic and it's not science anymore. You follow my meaning, right?

The imaginary number 'i' (or 'j' in electrical engineering) is not a paradox. 'i' is a mathematical convention to represent the square root of negative one. The algebra and calculus involving complex numbers (all numbers with either real or imaginary parts) have been logically defined so that 'complex math' and 'real math' are logically compatible.

Using complex mathematics can be used to solve most of the integrals in the table in the back of your first year calculus book that you can't solve otherwise. Complex math is used in pretty much every type of science and here's the reason why it works: Any real quantity (mass, velocity, force, energy, etc) that one would want has to compute to a real answer, even if the math involves imaginary numbers.

Examples of where complex math is used for real world problems: Fourier Transforms (all science and engineering use to analyze the frequency dependency of data), expressing any cyclical or wave-like data as a complex exponential (electrical signals, light, springs) makes computation easier, and complex numbers is fundamental in quantum mechanics - which much of modern technology utilizes.

 

[Soleron]

You need to go and study group theory and measure theory to a degree level and come back.

Arithmetic like that is not actually what maths is about.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

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?

I'm getting more of a "13 Year Old that doesn't know what he's doing vibe".

 

[Death God]

If you have 0/0=X and multiply both sides by 0, then you have to multiply all numbers meaning that you'd still have 0/0=0x. So basically, you went around in a circle dude. Plus, greater geniuses have thought of this before and disproved it. Nice try though all the same.

 

[Death God]

Oops. Double post. Delete this.

 

[Volafortis]

You completely fail at math, because you can't divide by 0.

Now, time to blow minds.

.333... + .666... = .999...

(1/3)+(2/3) = (3/3)

3/3 = 1

.999... = 1

^ Actually true

 

[Kanatatsu]

The OP doesn't understand what zero is. It's the null set. You cannot divide by it for a very good reason--there is no content to the set to form a divisor (ergo a/0 literally has no meaning).

Long story short: OP, look up what zero means.

 

[j0frenzy]

You completely fail at math, because you can't divide by 0.

Now, time to blow minds.

.333... + .666... = .999...

(1/3)+(2/3) = (3/3)

3/3 = 1

.999... = 1

^ Actually true

Better way to write it:

1/3=.333...
3(1/3)=3(.333...)
3/3=.999...
1=.999...

 

[gwilym101]

0/0 = infinity not 0

 

[MegaR]

how about x=5/0
would that make 0x = 5?
yea.....

 

[Pinkamena]

0/0 = infinity not 0

Wrong, it's NOT infinity. The limit of 0/0 is infinity, though. But 0/0 is undefined. It doesn't exist or make sense.

I can't believe this thread is still going on.

 

[SotK]

x/0.5 = 2x
Which means that if I put all of my apples in half a pile I would get twice as many!

Just had to put that out there

No it doesn't. It means if all of your apples are half of a pile, a full pile is twice as many apples as you have.

For the OP, the problem is where you say "0/x = 0, let x = 0". Since (I assume) you're working with reals, 0/x = 0 should be 0/x = 0, for all x != 0. Otherwise 0/x != 0, and as has been stated is undefined (0/0 is not in the set of all real numbers).

You completely fail at math, because you can't divide by 0.

Now, time to blow minds.

.333... + .666... = .999...

(1/3)+(2/3) = (3/3)

3/3 = 1

.999... = 1

^ Actually true

I prefer this proof:

Let x = 0.999...
Then 10x = 9.999...
9x = 10x - x
9x = 9.999... - 0.999...
9x = 9
So x = 9/9
x = 1
Hence 0.999... = 1

 

[Webb5432]

Sorry, dude. Until you get to a university calculus class, dividing by zero is the same as creating a singularity. Using 0/0 = X just doesn't do anything. Sorry, bro. But that was very clever. You'll do well in math if you can apply that.

 

[Jimbo1212]

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 Multiply 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?
Edit: I see the error now. Its not that x equals 0 its that at one point x CAN = 0

Step 1 is a fallacy.........ergo you did not disprove it. Also the number of mistakes afterwards just make this post worse

 

[Zack1501]

how about x=5/0
would that make 0x = 5?
yea.....

It would in fact make that but its still undefined. Its just a different way to write it. There is nothing x could be to have the first side equal five where as in 0x=0, x is any real number.

 

[ROBOcity123]

I'm trying to be polite here but I think that this post may be bordering on egotistical and pointless.

 

[Bobbity]

Wow, seven whole pages? You don't need my tired reasoning on top of all that, so...

Spoiler: Puppies!

 

[Jonluw]

Wow, seven whole pages? You don't need my tired reasoning on top of all that, so...

Spoiler: Puppies!

No...
No!
Don't let the puppies eat me!

Seriously though. It has long since been explained why the OP is terribly wrong. Can this thread just die now?
You're just reiterating the same points over and over, guys, and frankly I'm getting tired of seeing this thread in the forum list.

No. You. Stop right there. Yes, you. How many bloody times do you think the "0.999... = 1" tangent has been posted in this thread already?
No, it doesn't make you clever. Either read the thread and then say something that hasn't yet been said, or leave it.