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Why x*0 = x
#21
RE: Why x*0 = x
(December 13, 2015 at 9:50 am)excitedpenguin Wrote:
(December 13, 2015 at 9:44 am)Vic Wrote: That's not correct. The number of books in the pile is the outcome of the division, not the number we're dividing by. As in 5 piles of 2 books each is 10/5=0. The number of piles is what we're dividing by, so the question of 10/0 is the question of dividing 10 books into 0 piles. Physically impossible.

You don't divide them at all so it should be zero.

I'm just trying to apply common sense, I already know I'm wrong.

Not dividing at all would be not dividing at all. Dividing by zero is dividing. If you don't have the 10 books you can't divide them.

You can't divide by zero just because it's not possible. You can't put 10 books in zero piles.
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#22
RE: Why x*0 = x
(December 13, 2015 at 9:20 am)Gambit Wrote: Unfortunately, I have yet to meet the teacher who can teach me maths. I think I have numeric dyslexia or something. As soon as I try to understand even high school level maths, my brain starts to hurt. :/

That is an actual thing, it's called dyscalculia.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist.  This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair.  Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second.  That means there's a situation vacant.'
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#23
RE: Why x*0 = x
(December 13, 2015 at 10:05 am)Stimbo Wrote:
(December 13, 2015 at 9:20 am)Gambit Wrote: Unfortunately, I have yet to meet the teacher who can teach me maths. I think I have numeric dyslexia or something. As soon as I try to understand even high school level maths, my brain starts to hurt. :/

That is an actual thing, it's called dyscalculia.

Cool. Can I claim disability for it, tho? Big Grin
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#24
RE: Why x*0 = x
(December 13, 2015 at 9:59 am)Vic Wrote:
(December 13, 2015 at 9:50 am)excitedpenguin Wrote: You don't divide them at all so it should be zero.

I'm just trying to apply common sense, I already know I'm wrong.

Not dividing at all would be not dividing at all. Dividing by zero is dividing. If you don't have the 10 books you can't divide them.

You can't divide by zero just because it's not possible. You can't put 10 books in zero piles.

Well, ok, but how do you figure? Do you actually imagine the process of dividing by zero or are you simply taught that it can't be done?

That's the thing that I don't get about mathematics. A lot of it seems to build on itself, and as such it makes me think that we could have used a completely different way of explaining things that would have been just as useful. In other words, it's more like mathematics is just a way for the brain to express itself, if you know what I mean, but we could have just as easily picked another one.

Does that make any sense?
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#25
RE: Why x*0 = x
(December 13, 2015 at 10:05 am)Stimbo Wrote:
(December 13, 2015 at 9:20 am)Gambit Wrote: Unfortunately, I have yet to meet the teacher who can teach me maths. I think I have numeric dyslexia or something. As soon as I try to understand even high school level maths, my brain starts to hurt. :/

That is an actual thing, it's called dyscalculia.

I figured. I know from personal experiments however that you can fool your brain into thinking it can't do something you already know it can. So maybe I'm just wrong in assuming it must work the other way around too.
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#26
RE: Why x*0 = x
(December 13, 2015 at 10:09 am)excitedpenguin Wrote:
(December 13, 2015 at 9:59 am)Vic Wrote: Not dividing at all would be not dividing at all. Dividing by zero is dividing. If you don't have the 10 books you can't divide them.

You can't divide by zero just because it's not possible. You can't put 10 books in zero piles.

Well, ok, but how do you figure? Do you actually imagine the process of dividing by zero or are you simply taught that it can't be done?

That's the thing that I don't get about mathematics. A lot of it seems to build on itself, and as such it makes me think that we could have used a completely different way of explaining things that would have been just as useful. In other words, it's more like mathematics is just a way for the brain to express itself, if you know what I mean, but we could have just as easily picked another one.

Does that make any sense?

Well, there are many ways to construct math, via set theory, algebraically or by the axiomatic approach. If you want to further on this, look for mathematical analisys books. Do not just read them, as to learn math, you need to do math..
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#27
RE: Why x*0 = x
(December 13, 2015 at 10:09 am)excitedpenguin Wrote:
(December 13, 2015 at 9:59 am)Vic Wrote: Not dividing at all would be not dividing at all. Dividing by zero is dividing. If you don't have the 10 books you can't divide them.

You can't divide by zero just because it's not possible. You can't put 10 books in zero piles.

Well, ok, but how do you figure? Do you actually imagine the process of dividing by zero or are you simply taught that it can't be done?

I invite you to divide 10 books into 0 piles and tell me yourself.
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#28
RE: Why x*0 = x
(December 13, 2015 at 10:07 am)Gambit Wrote:
(December 13, 2015 at 10:05 am)Stimbo Wrote: That is an actual thing, it's called dyscalculia.

Cool. Can I claim disability for it, tho? Big Grin

No more than you can for dyslexia. Which incidentally is an anagram of 'daily sex'. Something else I haven't got.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist.  This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair.  Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second.  That means there's a situation vacant.'
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#29
RE: Why x*0 = x
What about daily succal?
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition

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#30
RE: Why x*0 = x
If you take 0 books out of the pile, you will eventually have an infinite number of piles of no books.

If 0.999... =1 (which I adamantly disagree with)
Then 10/infinity=0 (by the same 'rule' that allows 0.999... to equal 1)
Therefore 10/0=infinity.

But if you multiply both sides by 0, then 10 = 0. (another reason that 0.999... doe not equal 1)
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