The Divided by Zero Conundrum

For many years, it has been debated, and even turned into a popular Internet Meme. The single question, “What happens when you Divide Zero by Zero?”.

There are many ways to look at this question, and many ways to interperate it. You can view it as a simple Mathematical problem, finding the answer through functions and otherwise. You can even Discuss the Philosophical Value of Zero. It is through this writing, that you may be able to expand your mind, and your understanding, of this complex, yet overly simple topic.

As stated before, we can view this through a Mathematical argument, such as:

0/0=1

Now, this doesn’t make sense, as we are blatantly saying without proof, and to describe it to those not math friendly, we will compare it to another problem:

6/2=3

because

3*2=6

basically, we take the denominator, and multiply it by the answer, to receive the numerator, and so long as this works, it proves the problem, no matter what, 6/2=3.

so now:

0/0=1

because

0*1=0

and, in turn:

0/0= x

because

0*x=0

What this means is, Zero could be considered undefined, and both approaching nothingness, or infinity. Nothingness and infinity, however, are concepts, not numbers, so they cannot be achieved. so it can be stated, that 0=/=0, on the grounds that it is undefined and cannot be the absence of value.

Now we will take a Philosophical view, Does zero have value other then mathematical value? indeed it does, because the idea of zero has value, knowledge value, and a value cannot exist where nothing exists, therefore, Zero equals something. Zero is often said to be a placeholder for nothing, but the argument is why have a placeholder for something that is not there, because there would be nothing for the placeholder to take the place of.

EX: if there is no wall to hang a sign, stating “No Wall Here”, then there is no point in having the sign, nor any feasible way for the sign to show that there was no wall, because a wall didn’t exist in the first place. An argument to place an example of Undefined terms in philosophy, could be a man who smashes mailboxes. Let us assume this man has the ability to smash mailboxes forever, this man is Zero. Let us also assume that there is an ever increasing number of mailboxes, the mailboxes will represent infinity. by stated argument, then man can smash mailboxes no matter how many there are, but he can never smash them all, so the number he can smash is undefined, therefore, Zero is Undefined.

EX 2: there are Zero Candles, and Zero children to blow out the candles. it can be Assumed now that there is no feasible way for these candles to be blown out, but, with no one there to prove the candles weren’t there in the first place, the argument can’t be held, because there is nothing to prove or disprove.

There are countless arguments to make, but it can be agreed that Zero holds value at least some of the time.

Final thoughts on Zero Would be that Zero, like every number, is a variable, but zero is a true Variable, which can attain any Undefined number.

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9 Responses to “The Divided by Zero Conundrum”
  1. The Ace of Clubs Says...

    On March 31, 2008 at 11:56 pm

    I wish I had thought about submitting this somewhere, as I did contribute to the general idea here… Oh well, you beat me to it. And I probably woulkdn’t have put it as well as you did.


  2. Math Huskie Says...

    On April 1, 2008 at 12:37 am

    I heard once that there was a branch of mathematics that used divide by zero and it had some weird application, like imaginary numbers do… Does anyone know of what this is?


  3. Ammoniac Says...

    On April 2, 2008 at 5:18 pm

    technically,you can’t divide by zero because the function isn’t defined on it,it would be like taking a negative square root,it just can’t be done…
    (and don’t tell me about complex numbers,it NEVER stated that you could write something like sqrt(-3)!)


  4. anontrilby Says...

    On April 2, 2008 at 5:28 pm

    you can divide by zero, basically, if its not 0 itself, it would be infinity, as there are infinite nothings in -1> or 1


  5. anontrilby Says...

    On April 2, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    you can divide by zero, basically, if its not 0 itself, it would be infinity, as there are infinite nothings in -1> or 1


  6. LOL Says...

    On April 6, 2008 at 4:17 am

    You can write sqrt(-3)… it’s sqrt(3)*i.


  7. OH SHI- Says...

    On April 6, 2008 at 9:32 am

    What the hell is this art… OH SHI-


  8. Tom Cruise Says...

    On April 6, 2008 at 9:48 am

    Boy, this is more fun than the crap I had to read when I reached the OT III.

    Congratulations , now guys go ahead and read about Lisa MacPherson, we divided her by 0.


  9. Ori Sonata Says...

    On February 26, 2009 at 10:52 am

    The answer for 0/0 is actually a mathematical construct called a singularity. It simply means that all numbers are the right answer to the question.

    For real application however, that would depend a lot on the context where this problem arises. What usually done is investigating why the 0/0 calculation arise and use limit to tackle the problem.


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