Poll: Can YOU divide by zero?

[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

 

[Silver1Wolf2]

Dividing by zero ends up in a singularity not 0, 0 is the result of calculating the graph of a function which could at a point end up something like this: f(x) = (2+2x*x+3x)/x in which case there is a situation in which you get a number (2) divided by 0, this in algebra is not possible, in analytical mathematics results in 0 and in higher (college level/ possibly physics only over in the western world, only) math defines a singularity, or (for example) a point in which a 4 dimensional object exists in a 3 dimensional world (this is the case of your standard black hole in essence).

 

[Darth Crater]

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

Actually, this isn't the answer. Infinity is not a number, so you can't meaningfully use it except when dealing with limits and such. The closest math to what you've posted is:

x / 0 is undefined.
x * 0 = 0.
(in both cases, x is any real number)

 

[Silver1Wolf2]

Could people stop using primary school mathematics and axioms please? state a solution in respect to a certain level of mathematics and stick with it, x/0 exists as a number in higher forms of math but whom is so complex in its formulation it is best left undefined (put bluntly: if you can calculate the actual number of x/0 and not its graph's tendency then you sir have surpassed all other human beings in intelligence because you can now effectively show us the shape, volume and mass of a black hole and can now set the foundation of wormhole technology and other transdimensional applications).

 

[Undead Dragon King]

Chuck Norris delivers a roundhouse kick to this thread, because ONLY HE can divide by zero, and it's a skill that cannot possibly be taught. Even by him.

 

[ninjajoeman]

its just taking 0 out of a number so if you can fit 0 sticks of dynamite in a box and you have n sticks of dynamite how many boxes do you require. if that is the case then you cant because you cant physically fit the dynamite into the box. the question is what would be the answer
(lol I love my logic). In my opinion it would be 0.

 

[Mr.PlanetEater]

Yeah watch, 2 divided by 0...0, 1 divided by 0... 0.. 0 divided by 0...0! D:

 

[Dr. wonderful]

The 10 comandments of math states:

"Thou shall not divide by Zero."

It's actually the First law. >_>"

 

[sessionxiii]

i can't divide by zero but i can do this

1=1^2
2+2=2^2
3+3+3=3^2
Therefore: x+x+x+?.+x=x^2 or when "x" is added together "x" times the answer is equal to "x" squared
If we differentiate both sides they should be equal
1+1+1?.+1=2x
The derivative of x when added together equals x
x=2x
Divide by x

1=2

 

[AvsJoe]

You can attempt to, but you'll just break the equation.

Actually, yes you can.

Zero divided by zero equals zero.

Successful division of zero. World still exists. *whew*

 

[Sir-jackington]

of course i can.......i just choose not to

 

[thedeathscythe]

I thought it equaled infinity? How many nothings are there in anything? There's an infinite amount.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Yes, it's either positive or negative infinity, depending on what you divide by zero.
That's high-school material.

Now if only my PC had an infinite amount of RAM, so it could store infinity as an integer/float/double/...

 

[Omega Pirate]

I tried dividing by zero in my kitchen...

Spoiler