I Figured Out How to Divide by Zero

I have decided that dividing by zero is not actually impossible, but it just has no defined answer.

If ...

1 / 1 = 1
1 / 0.5 = 2
1 / 0.25 =4
1 / 0.125 =8
...
1/ 0.000005 = 200,000
1/ 0.0000000000001 = 10,000,000,000,000

As the denominator approaches zero the answer approaches infinity. Therefore...

1/0 = infinity

For example if an object has a force applied to it Force = Mass x Acceleration >>> Newton-meters = KG x m/s^2

How much force is applied if F = 10Kg x (5m/s / 0 seconds) ?

5/0 is infinity. Infinity x 10 = Infinity. Force would be equal to infinity, which is why it is impossible to have an object change velocities instantaneously, and because it would take an infinite amount of force which isn't actually possible.

So the next time someone says you can't divide by zero, just correct them and say, "yes you can; the answer is infinity."

So as in the force example. Saying you want to put matter into a container that has a volume of zero is akin to saying you want to put an infinite amount of matter into a container with a finite volume.

So the next time someone says you can't divide by zero, just correct them and say, "yes you can; the answer is 1."

Click to expand...

Fixed for accuracy.

Problem is, then 0/0 would be infinity, when properly it should be 1. Trying to treat division by zero as anything but nonsense breaks the entire number system.

No - dividing my 0 gives you 'irritus' - void. It simply voids the mathematical request and leaves the numerator stagnant and untouched.

You can't forget the purpose and principles of division when playing mathematician. . . your divisor serves to divided your numerator up into the prescribe parts. It's simple but the basics of the function.

It simply does nothing.

If I had an apple and divided it into 2 parts: 1 / 2 - then I would have two halves that were 1/2 or .5 of a whole apple.

If I had an apple and divided it into 0 parts: then I just leave that shiny globe of illicit temptation the **** alone because it's not going to bring me knowledge - it'll condemn me to death and I'll get my Evacious ass kicked straight out of Eden.

It's also how you get ants.

Viktyr Korimir said:

Problem is, then 0/0 would be infinity, when properly it should be 1. Trying to treat division by zero as anything but nonsense breaks the entire number system.

Click to expand...

Interesting. Does that mean that a numerator of 0 is the only case in which the answer is zero. If I apply 0 acceleration divided by 0 time the change in speed is thus zero. If acceleration were greater than 0 then it would be a number, even if infintesimally small that compounds an infine number of times in an instant since the time over which the acceleration is applied has no length.

Aunt Spiker said:

No - dividing my 0 gives you 'irritus' - void. It simply voids the mathematical request and leaves the numerator stagnant and untouched.

You can't forget the purpose and principles of division when playing mathematician. . . your divisor serves to divided your numerator up into the prescribe parts. It's simple but the basics of the function.

It simply does nothing.

If I had an apple and divided it into 2 parts: 1 / 2 - then I would have two halves that were 1/2 or .5 of a whole apple.

If I had an apple and divided it into 0 parts: then I just leave that shiny globe of illicit temptation the **** alone because it's not going to bring me knowledge - it'll condemn me to death and I'll get my Evacious ass kicked straight out of Eden.

Click to expand...

I know this sounds trippy, but let's set zero on the backburner for a second. If you divide an apple by 2 you have 2 pieces of a whole apple, right? If I divide one apple by 1/2 then I would get 2 apples in theory. If one apple is divided by 4 you have 4 pieces of 1 apple. If I divide one apple by 1/4 I have 4 apples. As I approach zero I get infinite apples.

Now if we don't go in the direction of decimals but rather increase the number of pieces that we cut the apple into eventually we will hit infinity (but not literally). If we did hit infinity then the apple would have to be an infinitely gigantic apple or the apple's pieces would all but in theory not even exist anymore because they would literally have zero size.

Obviously, the reason it's taught that you can't divide by zero is because it's applications are all impossible in every situation you look at it in, at least in reality. Not in theory though.

Gipper said:

Fixed for accuracy.

Click to expand...

Something raised to a power of zero is 1. I saw that youtube video too, and I think the Brit who made it doesn't understand how it works. 0/0 can only be zero. 0/0 is literally the one and only exception where the numerator has no multiplication value at all. Just a tiny pinch of multiplication power and boom you have infinity. 0/0 = 0.

Anything else / 0 = infinity. As anything compared to nothing is, relatively speaking, infinite in quantity more as zero can be multiplied infinite times and never reach the number of the numerator.

The denominator represents how many parts make the whole. Zero parts is not infinite parts.

Division is just worded different. I can take 1, and divide it into 2 to get 1/2 or 0.5.

When you divide by 0 you are essentially saying, don't divide.

It is not impossible, it is illogical.

Aberration said:

The denominator represents how many parts make the whole. Zero parts is not infinite parts.
...
It is not impossible, it is illogical.

Click to expand...

I just want to examine one thing here: zero parts is not infinite parts.

That's correct. The thing is we aren't trying to get infinity in the denominator. If there is 1/0 then, as you pointed out, it takes zero to make a whole. If we have 1/2 then it takes 2 parts to make the whole. If theres 1/0 then 0 parts of 1 make a whole and in order to reach one by adding zeros together we wind up with infinity. That's an odd way to picture it though. It's easier to look at it like this...

If 1/4 is the same as 2/8 and that is the same as 4/16 then 1/0 is the same as 2/0, 4/0, 8/0, 64/0 and so on to infinity because when we multiply the top and bottom, the top can be multiplied with a new products, but the zero will always be zero.

Edit: Yes, it is extremely illogical.

Ryanm said:

0/0 can only be zero. 0/0 is literally the one and only exception where the numerator has no multiplication value at all. Just a tiny pinch of multiplication power and boom you have infinity. 0/0 = 0.

Click to expand...

And if your solution is an 'exception to the rule', it's not mathematically valid. If it breaks the rules-- as in it causes the rules to stop working-- it's wrong. 0/0 isn't the only way that division by zero breaks math; it's just the only way that my uneducated ass can think of off-hand.

Ryanm said:

I have decided that dividing by zero is not actually impossible, but it just has no defined answer.

If ...

1 / 1 = 1
1 / 0.5 = 2
1 / 0.25 =4
1 / 0.125 =8
...
1/ 0.000005 = 200,000
1/ 0.0000000000001 = 10,000,000,000,000

As the denominator approaches zero the answer approaches infinity. Therefore...

1/0 = infinity

For example if an object has a force applied to it Force = Mass x Acceleration >>> Newton-meters = KG x m/s^2

How much force is applied if F = 10Kg x (5m/s / 0 seconds) ?

5/0 is infinity. Infinity x 10 = Infinity. Force would be equal to infinity, which is why it is impossible to have an object change velocities instantaneously, and because it would take an infinite amount of force which isn't actually possible.

So the next time someone says you can't divide by zero, just correct them and say, "yes you can; the answer is infinity."

So as in the force example. Saying you want to put matter into a container that has a volume of zero is akin to saying you want to put an infinite amount of matter into a container with a finite volume.

Click to expand...

Dividing by zero does not give you infinity. The answer is undefined.

You are kind of on to something. The limit as x approaches 0 of 1/x is infinity, but that's not the same thing as saying 1/x is infinity.

Ryanm said:

I know this sounds trippy, but let's set zero on the backburner for a second. If you divide an apple by 2 you have 2 pieces of a whole apple, right? If I divide one apple by 1/2 then I would get 2 apples in theory. If one apple is divided by 4 you have 4 pieces of 1 apple. If I divide one apple by 1/4 I have 4 apples. As I approach zero I get infinite apples.

Now if we don't go in the direction of decimals but rather increase the number of pieces that we cut the apple into eventually we will hit infinity (but not literally). If we did hit infinity then the apple would have to be an infinitely gigantic apple or the apple's pieces would all but in theory not even exist anymore because they would literally have zero size.

Obviously, the reason it's taught that you can't divide by zero is because it's applications are all impossible in every situation you look at it in, at least in reality. Not in theory though.

Click to expand...

But you never get to zero no matter how small you go with your fractions . . 1/100000000000000000000000 of an apple . . . it will never be suddenly 1/0 of an apple

This is for the previous three posts.

It is not something that works in reality. Period. The term infinity itself is almost the definition of undefined. The reason x/0 is undefined it because you cannot define infinity by assigning a number to it.

It is also absolutely true, that no matter how many times you cut an apple if will never be zero; that is if you make the number bigger ie 1, 2, 5, 10 and so on. However if you divide this apple by a decimal that approaches zero you have a spot that you know is zero. While this is physically impossible it works in theory. When you cut the apple by 0.5 you would magically have 2 apples. By the time you divide 1 apple by zero parts you would mathematically have an infine quantity of apples.

So here's what I have gotten out of this analyzing divison by zero. It is not mathematically impossible, but the reason it is useless is because it cannot happen in physical reality. It always winds up either making something infinitely small, infinitely large, infinitely powerful, infinitely heavy, infinitely weightless, or making somethig that happens over time be instantaneous(which often implies infinitely powerful).

I have also seen some people say that dividing by 0 is like not dividing and we know that that is actually the case with division by one so it isn't the case with divison by 0. If division by one was like not dividing then it wouldn't break math's useful application. The useful application of dividing by zero is that anytime an equation has you dividie by zero that's just math-equation speak for, "that can't actually happen unless you have the power of a god."

When we say that 0/0 breaks the system by equaling 0 instead of infinity we are actually looking at a different true rule of mathematics, and that is 0/ anything = 0. 0/1,3,5.... all 0. The reason 0/0 is an exception to being infinity is because it is the only one that is compatible with reality since it doesn't imply all of the things I listed above. For example, nothing happening over a time of zero works because it's nothing into nothing. You put something into nothing then we have a problem. Something relative to nothing is infinitely larger. ie 0.00000000001 is infinitely larger than 0. Wait a minute? You're probably thinking right now that it's not. 0.00000000001 is not infintely larger it's 0.00000000001 larger than 0. Such as 0 + 0.00000000001 = 0.00000000001. That's true, but that's when we're speaking in terms of addition. Divison changes the relation of the numbers because we're essentially asking, "how many times do you have to add zero together to get 0.00000000001?"

If we wanted to accelerate a car from 0 mph to 60mph over 0 seconds we would need an infinite amount of force. We know we cannot get an infine amount of force because an infinite amount of force cannot be acquired and therefore makes the thought useless in application.

Dividing by zero breaks maths. Example:


1) a=b

2) a^2 = ab (from 1))

3) a^2 - b^2 = ab - b^2 (from 2), subtract b^2 from both sides)

4) (a+b)(a-b) = b(a-b) (from 3), simplify)

5) a+b=b (from 4), divide both sides by (a-b) - we just divided by zero!)

6) 2b=b (from 5) and 1))

7) 2=1 (...oooops)

a/b=c
c*b=a

1/0 = infinity
infinity * 0 = 1 (this is untrue)

Ryanm said:

I have decided that dividing by zero is not actually impossible, but it just has no defined answer.

If ...

1 / 1 = 1
1 / 0.5 = 2
1 / 0.25 =4
1 / 0.125 =8
...
1/ 0.000005 = 200,000
1/ 0.0000000000001 = 10,000,000,000,000

As the denominator approaches zero the answer approaches infinity. Therefore...

1/0 = infinity

For example if an object has a force applied to it Force = Mass x Acceleration >>> Newton-meters = KG x m/s^2

How much force is applied if F = 10Kg x (5m/s / 0 seconds) ?

5/0 is infinity. Infinity x 10 = Infinity. Force would be equal to infinity, which is why it is impossible to have an object change velocities instantaneously, and because it would take an infinite amount of force which isn't actually possible.

So the next time someone says you can't divide by zero, just correct them and say, "yes you can; the answer is infinity."

So as in the force example. Saying you want to put matter into a container that has a volume of zero is akin to saying you want to put an infinite amount of matter into a container with a finite volume.

Click to expand...

Your method is an imitation of something that's done in calculus called limits.

Limit (mathematics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Because we can't calculate 1/0 directly, mathematicians used basically the same method you're describing to see if the function "A divided by B" approaches a limit as we move B closer and closer to zero. In math language, this is written as (in words you would say "the limit of A over B as B goes to zero")



As you suggest, this limit approaches infinity as we move B closer and closer to zero but only if we're approaching 0 from the positive side of the number line. However, if we approach 0 from the negative side of the number line (-1, -.001, -00000001, etc.), the limit approaches negative infinity.

Negative infinity is obviously a very different number than positive infinity, so the limit does not converge. This is why mathematicians say that dividing by zero does not exist and has no answer.

Viktyr Korimir said:

Problem is, then 0/0 would be infinity, when properly it should be 1. Trying to treat division by zero as anything but nonsense breaks the entire number system.

Click to expand...

Zero divided by zero is undefined because literally any number satisfies the expression.

Another way of saying "what is zero divided by zero" is "What number when multiplied by zero equals zero?"

Well, 5 times 0 equals 0.

6 times 0 equals 0.

7 times 0 equals 0.

...

the_recruit said:

Zero divided by zero is undefined because literally any number satisfies the expression.

Another way of saying "what is zero divided by zero" is "What number when multiplied by zero equals zero?"

Well, 5 times 0 equals 0.

6 times 0 equals 0.

7 times 0 equals 0.

...

Click to expand...

Yeah. That's the other reason that divide by zero is broken, but my sleep-deprived and drug-addled mind couldn't come up with.

the_recruit said:

Your method is an imitation of something that's done in calculus called limits.

Limit (mathematics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Because we can't calculate 1/0 directly, mathematicians used basically the same method you're describing to see if the function "A divided by B" approaches a limit as we move B closer and closer to zero. In math language, this is written as (in words you would say "the limit of A over B as B goes to zero")

As you suggest, this limit approaches infinity as we move B closer and closer to zero but only if we're approaching 0 from the positive side of the number line. However, if we approach 0 from the negative side of the number line (-1, -.001, -00000001, etc.), the limit approaches negative infinity.

Negative infinity is obviously a very different number than positive infinity, so the limit does not converge. This is why mathematicians say that dividing by zero does not exist and has no answer.

Click to expand...

That is an excellent point that I have never thought of.