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

BBC ^ | 12/8/06

[bert]

2=2=5 for LARGE values of 2

[bert]

once more with fingers......

2+2=5 for LARGE values of 2

[bert]

once more with fingers......

2+2=5 for LARGE values of 2

[quikdrw]

Only Chuck Norris can divide by zero. Plus, Chuck Norris has counted to infinity.....twice.

[r9etb]

Wouldn't it be easier to convert the numbers into logarithms and subtract them?

Lordy, I hope you simply forgot the /sarcasm tag....

[narby]

In my code, I have to pre-test any division to ensure that it's not attempting a divide-by-zero. If it is, I often substitute a really-tiny-number, and procede with the division. The result is a really-big-number, but that's OK, the rest of the algoritm still works.

Computers often can't quite represent an exact value anyway, so returning a result of divide by zero as a really-big-number is just fine.

[Slings and Arrows]

"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."

Unless your code has...oh, I don't know...EXCEPTION HANDLING?!

What a waste of education.

[Ingtar]

Actually, doesn't dividing by zero yield an infinite value?

[tacticalogic]

I'll buy all of that up to the point of saying it's real. IIRC, it is explicitly designated as imaginary.

[2banana]

To get a woman it takes Time and Money:

Women = Time x Money

And Time is Money and Money is Time

So: Women = Money x Money = Money^2

And Money is the root of all Evil

Money = SQRT(Evil)

So: Women = (SQRT(Evil))2

Or

Women = Evil (mathematically proven)

[MosesKnows]

a brand new theory that dividing by zero is possible

However, Grabel's law still prevails; 2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2.

[1rudeboy]

I learned in school that dividing by zero gives a result of "undefined."

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Idiots. They haven't solved the problem. They have just said that invalid results in math are acceptable.

Division means "how many of this number are in this other number". So dividing 5 into 10 means "how many 5's are in 10?"
2.

Saying "how many zeros are in this other number" is a meaningless phrase.

[HarmlessLovableFuzzball]

I think this guy is just a LIBERAL(well he would be liberal just for the fact that he is in a classromm). Anytime someone tries to justify wacko-ism or any sort of perversion..you know what that means.

[wastedyears]

Makes absolutely no sense to me. Never cared for the "extra" math, and I never will.

[paulat]

The Only Funny Joan Rivers Joke:

"I know a guy who's so stupid, he can't count to 21 unless he's naked."

[vrwc1]

It makes no sense in any universe. All he has done is give infinity a different name. Any of us could do the same. If you think it's so useful in the "computer universe", how are you going to represent this number "nullity" in that universe? What sequence of binary digits will you use?

[NonValueAdded]

We already have Nullity on the Internet and its value is 404. Can also be recognized by the symbol DU.

[absolootezer0]

2 + 2 = 5 for certain values of 2.

those certain values being what the government tells you they are.

[GYPSY286]

Math was not my strong point. Got into an argument in 3rd or 4th grade with my teacher about multiplication. She always used apples and oranges when explaining math. She told me that multiplying any number by zero is and always will be zero. I asked her if I had an apple in my hand and she multiplied it by 0, would it not be 1 since I still held the apple?