1200-year-old problem 'easy' [dividing by zero]

BBC ^ | 12/8/06

[LibWhacker]

Schoolchildren from Caversham have become the first to learn a brand new theory that dividing by zero is possible using a new number - 'nullity'. But the suggestion has left many mathematicians cold.

Dr James Anderson, from the University of Reading's computer science department, says his new theorem solves an extremely important problem - the problem of nothing.

"Imagine you're landing on an aeroplane and the automatic pilot's working," he suggests. "If it divides by zero and the computer stops working - you're in big trouble. If your heart pacemaker divides by zero, you're dead."

Computers simply cannot divide by zero. Try it on your calculator and you'll get an error message.

But Dr Anderson has come up with a theory that proposes a new number - 'nullity' - which sits outside the conventional number line (stretching from negative infinity, through zero, to positive infinity).

'Quite cool'

The theory of nullity is set to make all kinds of sums possible that, previously, scientists and computers couldn't work around.

"We've just solved a problem that hasn't been solved for twelve hundred years - and it's that easy," proclaims Dr Anderson having demonstrated his solution on a whiteboard at Highdown School, in Emmer Green.

"It was confusing at first, but I think I've got it. Just about," said one pupil.

"We're the first schoolkids to be able to do it - that's quite cool," added another.

Despite being a problem tackled by the famous mathematicians Newton and Pythagoras without success, it seems the Year 10 children at Highdown now know their nullity.

[CharlesWayneCT]

But linking to the story and watching the video wouldn't be nearly so much fun as participating in the discussion here......

[lepton]

In signal processing code, they often use the NaN for this

Shouldn't that be NaNO2, oxidizing to NaNO3? :-P

[CharlesWayneCT]

This is actually more fun than the official friday silliness thread......

[Slings and Arrows]

"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt."
--Old Jewish Proverb

[lepton]

You didn't ping me to this thread because?????

I'm sure it was because of your superfluous voidity.

[RFEngineer]

"Except that multiplication is now no longer a one-to-one function, since nullity*0 yields an infinite number of answers. "

So then nullility / 0 = what, nullility?

So dividing by zero is also the identity function.

Here I thought I figured this stuff up

[HarmlessLovableFuzzball]

See #52.

[TankerKC]

P=IE always made me hungry.

[Slings and Arrows]

My cat prefers P=IR.

[mjp]

nullity * nullity = biggety

[Maven]

2 + 2 = 5 for certain values of 2.

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don’t.

Maven

[JamesP81]

If you divide an integer by an integer in your computer program you will get an integer result.

I almost overlooked this. When a computer does integer division it does yield integer results. Except when it divides by zero. This usually pitches an exception error. You deal with it using exception handlers and, as part of the exception handler, you set your variable storing the answer to formula that divided by zero to null or your arbitrary value like I talked about in post #100. At least you'd better use exception handlers, because if you don't, that pacemaker the article talks about gets a BSOD and someone's heart stops.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Nullity divided by 0 = infinity.

See my link in post #55.

[Slings and Arrows]

Correction: Near-singular navigation matrix product. Someone will give me grief, just watch...

[Squawk 8888]

This is useless in the real world. The first language I ever worked with professionally had a default divide-by-zero error handler that just produce a result of zero and moved on. In the 32-bit world any language can be made to do the same thing by tossing in one or two lines of code.

IMNSHO any programmer working on life-critical apps who does not have a recovery strategy for ALL types of errors should be forced to work with nothing more advanced than a TRS-80 for the remainder of his career.

[Right Wing Assault]

My cat prefers P=IR.

Ohm preferred V = IR.

Watt preferred P = IV.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

First we discover that Pluto's not a planet, now we have a new number!!! Aaaarrrgggghhh...

[JamesP81]

I heard a good one in my freshman physics class. Our professor assigned a fairly complicated homework problem (complicated for college freshman, at least). It was a work problem. Basically, the problem said that a woman pulls a string at a 45 degree angle attached to a block of wood across a surface with a given frictional coefficient. She pulls the block of wood a certain distance. How much work did the woman do.

I came into class the next morning and he asked someone for the answer. One of my good friends put his hand up, got called on by the professor, and promptly answered, "that's easy: zero."

That was good for a laugh, at least for the guys.

[Slings and Arrows]

Ohm and Watt don't lick my nose when they want ear skritchies.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Proverbs 17:28: "Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue."