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qualy 05-19-2004 09:24 PM

A dumb math theory
 
My friend and I theorized that any whole number divided by 0 = infinity. We theorized this because of the fact that if you divide a whole number by a decimal (I'll take 100/.1 as an example), like 100/.1 you get a number higher than the whole number (1000 in this case). So, if you divided 100/0, it would be infinite because the 0's stalk on top of each other, but can't reach the number because of the fact that it is 0 and can't go any higher, no matter how much it's stacked on top of itself. The exception to this is 0/0, which is equal to 1 because 0 can go into itself 1 time.

Meh... sorry if the wording is a little confusing, I'm bad at explaining myself.

GuidoHunter 05-19-2004 09:45 PM

Re: A dumb math theory
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by qualy
The exception to this is 0/0, which is equal to 1 because 0 can go into itself 1 time.

Wrong.

0/0 is undefined. Just think about it: zero isn't anything, so how can it go into anything? Plus, how can anything go into nothing? Zero doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so when you put it over itself, it's only natural that the result is something we can't even comprehend.

You're taking the definition a/a=1 for any a, but there's always the stipulation that's often overlooked that a cannot equal zero (I'm not even TRYING to come up with a symbolic representation of "not equal to" because of the insane argument over that on another thread).

The idea behind your theory is just a limit. As your denominator decreases without bound, your product increases. Since your denominator can always be smaller, your result can always grow, hence, infinity.

Your theory is also commonly accepted in math, so don't expect to see a "qualy's and friend's theory of dividing by zero", not to discredit your contemplation or anything.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

qualy 05-19-2004 10:06 PM

=(

I lose.

The sad thing is that none of my other classmates are patient enough to come up with a theory like that (no matter how common it is). =/

edit: Btw, I would argue the point, but I'm terrible at arguing my point, so I rarely try at it, lest I say something stupid and make my entire point go to waste.

Chrissi 05-19-2004 10:41 PM

Well, I knew that before anybody told me. It's just something you reason out. I think about "why" a lot of things. Why is #/0 infinity? Because 0 goes into anything infinity times. End of story. I never really thought of making it my own "theory" though. I thought it was just.... common sense.

In the end, yes, not to insult you, but it's a rather dumb theory. :P

alainbryden 05-20-2004 09:16 AM

hooray for limits.
If you want to see why your logic is correct but the actual fact is anything devided by zero isn't infinity

*lim*****1
x->0***x
=oo

(oo = infinity)

Jam930 05-20-2004 09:19 AM

what?


it depends whether you think of zero as a value...or as nothing.


0 the value will go into anything cept 0 an infinate amount of times.

0 as nothing...well you're not really doing anything. if you just have 0

alainbryden 05-20-2004 09:26 AM

**lim*****1
x->0****x
=oo

nuff said. That's what math has decided on. Anything devided by exactly 0 does not exist, because anything over 0 is a limit :)

Snapps 05-20-2004 09:36 AM

Think of this:

You have 100 apples, you are going to divide by 0. Instead of using divide, lets say cut. You cut those apples into....0? No, that cant be. If you cut the apples, you would supposedly have to cut it by a number to remain with some apples.

If you cut with 0, then it like...makes itself go away, because its not a real number. There is no possible way to cut 0 into 100 apples, that means if its true, your cutting nothing into the apples, and I didnt say you werent going to still cut it. So if you cut nothing into 100 apples, it turns into nothing itself, because 0 doesnt exist.

Eh, little confusing, but I hope you understand.

alainbryden 05-20-2004 09:39 AM

umm.... snapps....no

Jam930 05-20-2004 09:57 AM

snapps is talking about my "0 a value or nothing"

he's using it as nothing.

0 as a value however...i think is different.


division: 5/0

how many 0's go into 5?

a. infinite
b. 0 is nothing, you cant do anything with nothing.

snapps, try 10/-2

it's -5. but negative apples dont make sense. we're talking about values, math.

alainbryden 05-20-2004 10:02 AM

Say you have a volume of space. You can devide this volume by 2 and get two equal volumes of space.

You can devide the volume into a very small number and get a very large number of equal spaces.

But deviding the space by zero is like dividing the space into voids. You cannot just make the space cease to exist. You cannot turn a quantity of space into an infinite number of void spaces. It just makes no logical sence.

Snapps 05-20-2004 10:04 AM

Ah I see, my mistake.

I will still keep my theory for when we aren't talking about values, but now I side with alain and Jam.

dontcareaboutmyid 05-20-2004 12:29 PM

nothing can't go into anything end of disscusion

GuidoHunter 05-20-2004 01:52 PM

Jam, the very idea of zero as a value is incomprehensible. Anything you come up with using it as a "value" is meaningless, therefore there's no use to trying to attribute something to nothing. Alain hit this argument on the head.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com/

Afrobean 05-20-2004 04:50 PM

I think I can describe it pretty good. Imagine it this way:

Let's say there's a number which is infinitely close to zero without ever reaching it. That number would be accepted as zero despite not actually equalling zero (think about 3/3. technically that equalls .9 with nines forever and not 1). If you were to divide any number by this number, it'd be infitely close to infinity, which, I'd assume, would also be accepted as infinity.

If any of you have a graphing calculator, graph the function f(x)=1/X . You'll see what I mean by infintely close to infinity.

Also, I don't recall who mentioned it, but "not equal to" is an equal sign with a dash through it. like this: ≠. Don't you love character map?

IAMTHEEVILBEAN 05-20-2004 04:53 PM

I think it is infinite. Why would the number 0 exist if it does not have a value?

fusi0n 05-20-2004 05:29 PM

because it represents having nothing. like having no (or zero) fetuses in your hand.

Squeek 05-20-2004 05:41 PM

Placeholder? Rounding purposes? It serves a decent purpose in that sense.

We should all know that we don't exist to debate this anyway. The universe is infinite, the number of living beings is not. And infinite number / any finite number = really small fraction which averages to 0. (It would have been 0.00000e100 anyway)

So, the average population of the universe is 0. You don't exist.

~Squeek

IAMTHEEVILBEAN 05-20-2004 06:20 PM

Yeah, I just thought of something,

7 x 0 = 0

Not infinity

perfect_fat 05-20-2004 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IAMTHEEVILBEAN
I think it is infinite. Why would the number 0 exist if it does not have a value?

It was created by Persian mathematicians to represent nothing.

What's the Roman numeral for 0? Doesn't have one, because whities were too stupid to come up with the idea.


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