Poll: Does zero exist? - intellectual debate
- Thread starter Claymorez
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Hey, if you ask me, any number is nonexistent in that it is merely an idea to express the quantity of a thing and, as it exists only as an idea, cannot be real. (Yes, even if you call it a 'real number.')
That said, you can divide by zero quite readily. What you do is you convert the numbers back from their abstract representations of reality back to the thing they represent, and then apply a bit of common sense to understand what zero means in a particular circumstance.
e.g.
You are traveling at exactly zero miles per hour. How long until you travel 300 miles?
300/0 = oh shi- oh right, I'm not moving, so I'll never get there.
You have 5 apples. You wish to split it between zero people. How many apples will there be per person?
5/0 = oh shi- oh, right, I'm not actually dividing the apples between anyone, so the question is irrelevant.
That said, you can divide by zero quite readily. What you do is you convert the numbers back from their abstract representations of reality back to the thing they represent, and then apply a bit of common sense to understand what zero means in a particular circumstance.
e.g.
You are traveling at exactly zero miles per hour. How long until you travel 300 miles?
300/0 = oh shi- oh right, I'm not moving, so I'll never get there.
You have 5 apples. You wish to split it between zero people. How many apples will there be per person?
5/0 = oh shi- oh, right, I'm not actually dividing the apples between anyone, so the question is irrelevant.
I think the joke here is that we tend to think that a conceptual nothing can exist in the first place. The whole point of nothing is that it doesn't exist. Or it wouldn't be nothing. It'd be something. Which would remove its purpose.
Zero is merely a way of referring to nothing, or a group of nothings. It is not a thing, but a concept. A concept, by definition, does not exist. A one or two do not exist either, past the neural signals in our brain that created and use them - the thing we apply the concept to does, but concepts were never more than brain constructs.
Zero doesn't exist, except as a concept. And as a concept, it only exists some of the time: when we think of it. If neural signals can be said to be existing - which they can, then you might say the concept exists on a technicality.
Zero is merely a way of referring to nothing, or a group of nothings. It is not a thing, but a concept. A concept, by definition, does not exist. A one or two do not exist either, past the neural signals in our brain that created and use them - the thing we apply the concept to does, but concepts were never more than brain constructs.
Zero doesn't exist, except as a concept. And as a concept, it only exists some of the time: when we think of it. If neural signals can be said to be existing - which they can, then you might say the concept exists on a technicality.
As a definition of something that doesn't exist, an absence of anything quantifiable, yes zero exists.
Well, I tried to understand the post, but then my brain realized that I've been looking at escapist posts the entire night and that they do not substitute for school. My brain then realized that if it tried to understand this poll it would probably explode. This was actually quite an accomplishment for my brain and I've decided to give it a little rest.
this sorta reminds me of this guy I knew who spent the whole day trying to make a triangle with two sides to "get rich". You've thought this out waaaaay more than he did, but that's what I instantly thought of.
yeah It exists, but it's nothing, it's more abstract than 1 or 550,073 (my favourite number) so it's harder to understand. I gusse the more you think about it the less real it seems, and since I never give anything over 2 seconds in my head before I spurt them out of my mouth I'll say yes it's real.
EDIT: I didn't read through the other comments when writing this and the one other thing I was going to include but didn't because of fear of A. not being good at math and 1. not knowing jack or shit about philosophy, has already been said. This is more of a philosophical question than a mathmatic one.
yeah It exists, but it's nothing, it's more abstract than 1 or 550,073 (my favourite number) so it's harder to understand. I gusse the more you think about it the less real it seems, and since I never give anything over 2 seconds in my head before I spurt them out of my mouth I'll say yes it's real.
EDIT: I didn't read through the other comments when writing this and the one other thing I was going to include but didn't because of fear of A. not being good at math and 1. not knowing jack or shit about philosophy, has already been said. This is more of a philosophical question than a mathmatic one.
in actual physics zero would be a vacuum like in space or an nulled charge of two atoms of opposite pols. so zero dose exist but on paper it can seem a little abstract. also your logic dose make sense except the fact that a variable represents any possible number other than zero in most forms of math.
Yeah it does. First, 0/0 doesn't exist because it would, theoretically, equal infinity. Look at 1/n=x. As n approaches 0, x approaches infinity. But infinity is just a concept, so x can't actually exist.
Also, n^0=1. So 0 does something.
I think both these points were previously made, but there you are.
Also, n^0=1. So 0 does something.
I think both these points were previously made, but there you are.
0 is a place holder, NOTHING MORE. Always has been. You can not have 0 of anything, therefore it only exists in numerics.You can have a ten apples, that is 10 apples. For math's sake, they made 0 up from thin air. that way 10 can be represented in math as 10 rather then something more confusing like... TEN. then algebra and calculus would shit itself inside out in that peridoxal world where 0 is not represented.
0 is a PLACE HOLDER, NOTHING MORE.
0 is a PLACE HOLDER, NOTHING MORE.
No.DMonkey said:
OT:
Hmm... technically, no, Zero, by its very definition and function, can't exist.