(August 10, 2013 at 2:57 am)teaearlgreyhot Wrote: I'm not a math wiz. Why is it you can multiply by zero and get zero but you can't divide by zero?
Why doesn't 1/0 equal 0 but 1*0 does? Is there a reason or is it arbitrary?
A simple demonstration:
1/.1 = 10 = 10^1
1/.01 = 100 = 10^2
1/.001 = 100 = 10^3
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1/.000001 = 1,000,000 = 10^6
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1/.0000000001= 10,000,000,000 = 10^10
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So as we divide by smaller and smaller dividors, we get a bigger and bigger answer. Now division by zero is not permitted but we can still symbolize it as:
Limit 1/n = ∞
as n → 0
Actually, this is the beginning of understanding calculus.