(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?
