NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2006/12/06/divide_zero_feature.shtml

Why are people listening to this at all?
As far as I can tell from the article here, this 'nullity' thing is basically just a placeholder for the 'cannot divide by zero' message we know and love. And an excuse for Dr. James Anderson to get a fat paycheck for thinking of drawing a capitol I through a zero.
You have to love the sort of scientist that says, "Oh? Global warming? Well, its simple, we just call it 'sphereonic hyperthermic acceleration', then nobody will bother with it.' Not exactly the same case, I know, but you get the idea.

As far as Im concerned, dividing by zero still creates a mini-black hole and destroys everything in your local area. ;)

Ah, one of the comments on the article:
I too have solved an old age problem. The meaning of life which I call Liath. It is quite simple now that we understand that Liath happens between Life and Death ;)
Huzzah, we know the meaning of life now!

I thought dividing by Zero gets zero? Because Zero goes into everything 0 times?

It might be novel to have a computer deal with it in that way though.
on the other hand, is it actually that different from NaN?

I thought dividing by Zero gets zero? Because Zero goes into everything 0 times?

Fool. Its negative zero. Jeesh....

I thought dividing by Zero gets zero? Because Zero goes into everything 0 times?0 goes x times into 0, for any x. That's why it's problematic to divide by zero.

Well, the American Food and Drug Administration just recently redefined "hungry people" as "people with low food security," so go figure.

I think the problem is stupid. Just use logic; 1 is something and 0 is nothing. There are no nothings in something, so the answer is 0.

I think the problem is stupid. Just use logic; 1 is something and 0 is nothing. There are no nothings in something, so the answer is 0.That's not really a good argument.
You can subtract nothing arbitrarily often from any number without reaching 0 after all.
If you want to use logic. Start with a consistent set of axioms, and see if you can prove it. The Peano Axioms are an obvious choice for axioms, if you want to give it a try.
A small hint, it's not something you want to try. But if you want claims of logic, I'm sorry to say that's the way to go.

I think the problem is stupid. Just use logic; 1 is something and 0 is nothing. There are no nothings in something, so the answer is 0.

Ugh. Go study advanced calculus before spouting crap on a subject you have no clue about.

Having just watched the video of his proof, I have a question:

He ends up showing that you'll get 0/1 * 1/0 and then goes on to show that that equals his new symbol. But if you don't do it his way, do you not get:

0/1 = 0 and 1/0 = infinity (by his definition)

therefore you have 0 * infinity = 0

No?

I thought dividing by Zero gets zero? Because Zero goes into everything 0 times?

No, its a vertical line on a graph. Thus it is infinite and undefined.

Wait..im not sure if it get this....
going back to second grade, if there are 3 candy bars and no people to eat them, how many does each person get? Well dosnet it make sense that you cant answer? Am im missing something here?

My favorite comment from the article:

Anyone know of a credit card with this kind of interest rate??

Wait..im not sure if it get this....
going back to second grade, if there are 3 candy bars and no people to eat them, how many does each person get? Well dosnet it make sense that you cant answer? Am im missing something here?

From what I can gather from the article, a number of second graders between infinity and negative infinity get the candy bars.
Kind of like those Shakespear monkeys, you know?

From what I can gather from the article, a number of second graders between infinity and negative infinity get the candy bars.
Kind of like those Shakespear monkeys, you know?


I know nothing from math
always found it tricky

But wasn't coming up with the number 0
in the first place a stroke of genius that allowed solutions to math
problems that couldn't be done before
and didn't some people have difficulty grasping how 0 could be a number anyway.

For me however, the point where I threw in the towel on maths
was them suddenly (as in my math teacher introduced us to the concept)
declaring "remember how we said you couldn't get a square root of a
negative number, meet i (blooming imaginary numbers).
(hopefully I've gotten it right I know i was involved and -1 but like I said
I threw in the towel right after hearing that little announcement and it
was an awful long time ago)

That was the point I decided they were making it up as they went along<g>

I always thought 0/0 = anything.

I always thought 0/0 = anything.

Yeah, and you also thought Pluto was a planet.

Boy, were you WRONG! :rolleyes:

Kind of like those Shakespeare monkeys, you know?
Damn those Shakespeare monkeys!
God, how I hate them. *shakes fist angrily*

Anyone else notice the oddity in the report?
It talks about a 1200 yr-old problem that neithr Newton nor Pythagoras could do yet easily solved by schoolchildren

1200yrs ago, Pythagoras had been dead for about 1300 years.

Little wonder, then, that he was unable to solve said problem.