# / 0 - - defining the undefined

[ArsenaL]

Doesn't is seem weird, you divide a number by 1 and the quotient is the same number, but if you divide it by zero(which if translated into plain english is stated as not being divided by anything) what do you get?
Undefined -- a word coined by mathematicians whcih seems to be shrouded by mystery (sort of a conspiracy) and philosophical depth.
I hope you could help shed some light regarding this.

[Dogberto]

Not clear on why you see zero as such a mysterious number. Does it necessarily have a philosophical meaning? It is undefined, a non-number signifying nothingness / absence of a value. If you want to ponder about nothingness, try the void of zen buddhism or the nihilism of western philosophy.

[Deus]

Hindi magkatulad yung statement sa English at sa math.... ganito kasi iyon.....

1/x = y kapag pinalaki mo yung x, liliit yung y, kapag pinaliit mo yung y pinapalaki mo yung x. Habang pinapaliit mo yung x, o sabihin nating palapit ng palapit sa zero yung y. Kapag nai-graph mo yung 1/x=y makikita mong hindi lalampas sa guhit na x=0 yung guhit ng graph. Ibig sabihin walang number na katumbas yung 0 sa 1/x.

[zimdude]

The limit of (x/y) as y approaches 0 is infinity.

Why is that? Let x = 1, and y start at 1. x/y = 1.
Shrink y down to 0.1, and then 1/0.1 = 10. The closer y gets to zero, the higher the number becomes, thus we treat it as approaching infinity.

I started a thread where we can focus on math stuff like this...

[tRiStAn]

It's hard to explain why the quotient of any number divided by zero is "undefined". Even mathematicians argue over some of these quotients. Take for example 0/0. Some mathematicians say that this is "indeterminate" or "undefined," while others insist that the quotient is 1. The terms "indeterminate" and "undefined" are really just arbitrary and are coined just to avoid contradictions that arise when we denote a particular value to numbers of the form a/0. Remember that any number c can be written in the form a/b. And for b = 0, then c = a/0 so that 0 = a/c. We can say that the only solution is c = infinity, but infinity is not a number! If we insist that infinity is a number, we'd run into contradictions. This is what mathematicians seek to avoid.



[Edited by tRiStAn on 10-31-2000 at 01:28 AM]