A dumb math theory

[qualy]

My friend and I theorized that any whole number divided by 0 = infinity. We theorized this because of the fact that if you divide a whole number by a decimal (I'll take 100/.1 as an example), like 100/.1 you get a number higher than the whole number (1000 in this case). So, if you divided 100/0, it would be infinite because the 0's stalk on top of each other, but can't reach the number because of the fact that it is 0 and can't go any higher, no matter how much it's stacked on top of itself. The exception to this is 0/0, which is equal to 1 because 0 can go into itself 1 time.

Meh... sorry if the wording is a little confusing, I'm bad at explaining myself.

[GuidoHunter]

Re: A dumb math theory

The exception to this is 0/0, which is equal to 1 because 0 can go into itself 1 time.

Wrong.

0/0 is undefined. Just think about it: zero isn't anything, so how can it go into anything? Plus, how can anything go into nothing? Zero doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so when you put it over itself, it's only natural that the result is something we can't even comprehend.

You're taking the definition a/a=1 for any a, but there's always the stipulation that's often overlooked that a cannot equal zero (I'm not even TRYING to come up with a symbolic representation of "not equal to" because of the insane argument over that on another thread).

The idea behind your theory is just a limit. As your denominator decreases without bound, your product increases. Since your denominator can always be smaller, your result can always grow, hence, infinity.

Your theory is also commonly accepted in math, so don't expect to see a "qualy's and friend's theory of dividing by zero", not to discredit your contemplation or anything.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[qualy]

=(

I lose.

The sad thing is that none of my other classmates are patient enough to come up with a theory like that (no matter how common it is). =/

edit: Btw, I would argue the point, but I'm terrible at arguing my point, so I rarely try at it, lest I say something stupid and make my entire point go to waste.

[Chrissi]

Well, I knew that before anybody told me. It's just something you reason out. I think about "why" a lot of things. Why is #/0 infinity? Because 0 goes into anything infinity times. End of story. I never really thought of making it my own "theory" though. I thought it was just.... common sense.

In the end, yes, not to insult you, but it's a rather dumb theory. :P

[alainbryden]

hooray for limits.
If you want to see why your logic is correct but the actual fact is anything devided by zero isn't infinity

 lim     1
x->0   x
=oo

(oo = infinity)

[Jam930]

what?


it depends whether you think of zero as a value...or as nothing.


0 the value will go into anything cept 0 an infinate amount of times.

0 as nothing...well you're not really doing anything. if you just have 0

[alainbryden]

  lim     1
x->0    x
=oo

nuff said. That's what math has decided on. Anything devided by exactly 0 does not exist, because anything over 0 is a limit

[Snapps]

Think of this:

You have 100 apples, you are going to divide by 0. Instead of using divide, lets say cut. You cut those apples into....0? No, that cant be. If you cut the apples, you would supposedly have to cut it by a number to remain with some apples.

If you cut with 0, then it like...makes itself go away, because its not a real number. There is no possible way to cut 0 into 100 apples, that means if its true, your cutting nothing into the apples, and I didnt say you werent going to still cut it. So if you cut nothing into 100 apples, it turns into nothing itself, because 0 doesnt exist.

Eh, little confusing, but I hope you understand.

[alainbryden]

umm.... snapps....no

[Jam930]

snapps is talking about my "0 a value or nothing"

he's using it as nothing.

0 as a value however...i think is different.


division: 5/0

how many 0's go into 5?

a. infinite
b. 0 is nothing, you cant do anything with nothing.

snapps, try 10/-2

it's -5. but negative apples dont make sense. we're talking about values, math.

[alainbryden]

Say you have a volume of space. You can devide this volume by 2 and get two equal volumes of space.

You can devide the volume into a very small number and get a very large number of equal spaces.

But deviding the space by zero is like dividing the space into voids. You cannot just make the space cease to exist. You cannot turn a quantity of space into an infinite number of void spaces. It just makes no logical sence.

[Snapps]

Ah I see, my mistake.

I will still keep my theory for when we aren't talking about values, but now I side with alain and Jam.

[dontcareaboutmyid]

nothing can't go into anything end of disscusion

[GuidoHunter]

Jam, the very idea of zero as a value is incomprehensible. Anything you come up with using it as a "value" is meaningless, therefore there's no use to trying to attribute something to nothing. Alain hit this argument on the head.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com/

[Afrobean]

I think I can describe it pretty good. Imagine it this way:

Let's say there's a number which is infinitely close to zero without ever reaching it. That number would be accepted as zero despite not actually equalling zero (think about 3/3. technically that equalls .9 with nines forever and not 1). If you were to divide any number by this number, it'd be infitely close to infinity, which, I'd assume, would also be accepted as infinity.

If any of you have a graphing calculator, graph the function f(x)=1/X . You'll see what I mean by infintely close to infinity.

Also, I don't recall who mentioned it, but "not equal to" is an equal sign with a dash through it. like this: ≠. Don't you love character map?