technology Zero divided by zero

[u53rn4m3 69]

So I have been getting frustrated about what 0/0 is, so I made a C++ program that will divide 0 by 0 and this pops up as an error

this was the code

 

#include

using namespace std;

int main()
{
int = pp;
PP = 0/0;
cout<<"0 divided by 0 is "<<pp;
int hold;
cin>>hold;
return 0;
}

;

so I decided to input the 0s in manually, and if I try to divide 0 by 0, the program fucking crashes

here is the source code to try it for yourself

 

#include

using namespace std;

int main()
{
int RD, flutter, twilight;
cout<<"enter 0"<<endl;

cin>>RD;

cout<<"enter another 0"<<endl;;
;

cin>>flutter;
twilight = RD / flutter;
cout<<"the anwer to 0/0 is: "<<twilight;

int hold;
cin>>hold;
return 0;
}

;
;
;

 

and I found a physics forum and they didn't have a clear answer (or I'm just dumb)

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/zero-divided-by-zero.29213/

 

does anyone know the answer to this major black hole???

 

 

I think the answer is zero because you're not dividing anything, but I'm not a math wiz

 

[Invincible 2,090]

Let's set:

 

0 / 0 = X.

 

We then get (through simple algebra):

 

0 = X*0.

 

Do you see the problem here? X can take on any number and the answer will still be right. 

 

EDIT: In case this isn't self-explanatory, my point is it's undefined. There are of course much more complex arguments, but math consensus is that 0/0 is undefined.

 

EDIT 2: I love your code.

Edited September 28, 2014 by Terminus

[11th Doctor Whooves 794]

I think what you're attempting to accomplish might very well lead to the end of mankind, and I'd like you to stop before it's too late, please XD

 

Never thought about what 0/0 would mean, but now that I do, it makes my head hurt, lol.

[RainbowdashFTW 50]

Divide by zero? OH SHHHHHHH-

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

Engineering student here. As someone who's had a lot of upper-level math classes, I can try my hand at explaining a few things.

 

Consider this. If you have a number and divide it by itself, it will give you one. For example, 100/100 is 1, 50/50 is 1, 25/25 is 1. We could also say 0.0001/0.0001 is 1, or -0.0001/-0.0001 is 1. So, we'll represent this as 1 = a/a, where a could be any number.

 

...except zero.

 

So naturally, let's break the rules. If a is zero, then we can say that 1 = a/a = 0/0. This should mean that zero divided by zero is one. However, in mathematics, 0/0 is what's called an indeterminate form. What that means is that we can't really decide what it is. If you analyze the problem from another direction, you'll get a different solution. So, here's the other way of looking at it.

 

You see, in mathematics, you just don't divide by zero. Ever. You can't do it. It's against the rules.

 

When you divide something, you're breaking it up into that many pieces. If you have 100 and you divide it by 5, each piece becomes 20. If you have a hundred and you divide it by 20, each piece becomes 5. If you have a hundred and divide it by 100, you have 100 pieces of 1. If you have 100 and divide it by 100,000, you have 100,000 pieces of 0.001.

 

But when you divide a number by a number smaller than 1, the number gets bigger. This is when it becomes effective to use fraction notation. Dividing by one fifth is the same as multiplying by five, or multiplying by a hundred is the same as dividing by a hundredth. This is just how it works. But what's important is that as the number you divide by gets smaller, your result gets bigger.

 

Suppose you have 1, and you divide it by 0.0001. That will give you 10,000. Suppose you have 1 and divide it by 0.0000001. That will give you 10,000,000. So, if you take a number and divide it by a big number, you'll have a small number. If you take a number and divide it by itself, you have 1. If you take a number and divide it by a small number, you have... a really big number.

 

So, what do you think should happen if you divide a number--any number--by zero? Zero is the smallest number there is. In theory, if you divide a number by zero, it should give you the largest number. The largest number, of course, is infinity. That's represented by this little guy, ∞.

 

But stop. We can't say that's true, either. It's not so simple. You can't just say anything divided by zero is infinity. Here's why.

 

If you divide anything by the smallest negative number, you'll still get a large number, but it will be the largest negative number. It will be negative infinity. So, with that in mind, let's look at a graph. Let's take a number, such as 1, and divide it by another number, say x. Look at what happens as x approaches zero.

 

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=1%2Fx

 

You can play around with that, but what you'll see is that the answer is not defined at zero. The computer knows a really small x value produces a really large y value, and a really small negative x value produces a really large negative y value. But zero just confuses the computer. It doesn't know what the answer is.

 

We could also think about this using exponents.

 

We know that a² is a*a. That's easy. And since a³ is a*a*a, what do you think a¹ is? It's not that complicated; don't overthink it. It's just a. But if you have a^-1, you have 1/a. If you have a^-2, you have 1/a². So, a⁰ is a/a, and as we already determined, a/a is 1.

 

If you look at the graph of any number raised to the zeroth power, you'll see that the answer is a straight line at 1. That means that any number to the zeroth power is 1. Nice, easy and simple. It seems like we can conclude that 0⁰ is 1, then.

 

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=x^0

 

While some textbooks do define 0⁰ as 1, don't let it fool you. It's still an indeterminate form. There is actually a "hole" in the graph at zero.

 

If you still don't understand why it's indeterminate, consider this.

 

What would you multiply zero by to get zero? That could be anything!

 

Multiplication and division are inverses. One undos the other. So, any number divided by a number and then multiplied by that number is the number you started with. So, a/b * b = a.

 

If you divide something by zero, you should be able to multiply it by zero to get what you originally had. Suppose you have b equal to zero. If we multiply zero by a/zero, we should get a, right? But we can't. Anything times zero is zero. So basically, things stop making sense if you do that. To keep things making sense, we put this all aside and say, "nope. Can't do that, because b must not be equal to zero."

Edited September 30, 2014 by Regulus

[Snow Frostflame 3,567]

hmm I always thought the answer was 0

[Onion Sing 666]

 

Someone had to post it, might as well be me XD.

[Blaze Bronson 343]

Consider 2x/x .....if you say x is aproaching 0, the expression becomes 0/0. However as you can see 2x/x = 2. So you can change an expression so the answer doesn't become 0/0, but 0/0 itself is not a valid mathematical expression.

[silvadel 1,393]

0/0 means you have something fundimentally wrong with the question.  When you do math and end up at 0/0 you typically have done something wrong.

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

So many eggheads ITT smh why are you trying to divide by zero OP? Do you want the world to come to an end!?

[Fluttershutter 2,138]

I've always heard that mathematically zero divided by zero is one. Normally you can't divide by zero but dividing zero by zero is a special case because there is one zero in zero, right?

That's how I understand it anyway. Programming languages will obviously do whatever the hell they want.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Fluttershutter

[Darker 1,351]

What do I get out of this?

 

Zero is best number.

[Invincible 2,090]

I've always heard that mathematically zero divided by zero is one. Normally you can't divide by zero but dividing zero by zero is a special case because there is one zero in zero, right?

That's how I understand it anyway. Programming languages will obviously do whatever the hell they want.

Well, it's not so simple. As i stated above, 0/0 could be 1, could 13 or could be -217.

 

Even in more advanced cases, such as with limit theory (where a value is 'approaching' zero, but 'isn't quite'), a division between the two is still not easily defined. You would need to manipulate the values to see a clearer interaction (usually, a crude observation would be to see which value approaches zero faster, for instance) and it could produce many results (0, infinity, a constant value).

 

This is kind of a digression from the original topic but, Programming languages are series of commands that your machine translates to machine language and then interprets them as orders. They do have loopholes and unexpected caveats here and there because they were tailored to the needs of a programmer, and it's possible some things change when code runs through a linker and a compiler. Think of it like translating an English sentence to Spanish using Google translate - it may get some of the message across, but you can sorta lose things in the translation. The rule of thumb here is, the easier a language is for a user to understand, the cruder the code becomes. In short, computers are reliable, but they're just machines that are programmed to do certain things, so there.

[Sigma 768]

The division property of equality doesn't work when you divide using zero.

 

Usually:

5*3=5*3

5*3÷3=5*3÷3

5=5

 

However, with division by zero:

 

1*0=2*0

1*0÷0=2*0÷0

1=2

 

When you multiply x by y, no matter what the number is, you should be able to cancel it out through division by y (and vice-versa, when dividing by y first). Zero does not allow you to do this without being at risk of getting a contradiction.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Asterisk Propernoun

[u53rn4m3 69]

I do not remember making this thread...

when did I do this..

what was I thinking..

I must have been really really bored...

 

help...

 

 

but regardless thanks for the replies guys! 

[Nulln 754]

it's everything and nothing.  

[Ryzu 984]

It's a blackhole. It's like what happens when you remove all elements from a container. It gets sucked up to the middle.

[GenderIsAnIllusion 2,177]

Heres a simple model as to why it is impossible to determine what 0/0 is.

 

First take a simple physics equation: v= D/t, where v is average velocity, D is distance, and t is time. 

 

Now lets rearrange it to read t = D/v. If average velocity is zero, and displacement is zero, how much time has passed?..... It could be infinite, it could be zero and everything in between.

 

Or lets look at a rectangle: A = LW> L = A/W

 

If both A and W are zero, do we get a line of length infinity or nothing.

[KokuraiNoSenshi 3,463]

Welcome to mlpforums.com, where we plot the downfall of civilization as we know it through the power of diving 0 by another 0!

[u53rn4m3 69]

guys help! I kept trying to 0/0 and a BIG SCARI BLEK WOL CAME OUTTA KNOW WHERE!!!!11!!! GET IN THE FETAL POSITION!!!!!!!1!!!

 

[Spikey-Wikey 378]

I don't get the whole 0 divded by 0 thing...

 

Isn't the answer just 0?

[Blaze Bronson 343]

I don't get the whole 0 divded by 0 thing...

 

Isn't the answer just 0?

It's never allowed to divide anything by 0, not even 0.

 

0 essentially means there is nothing.

 

x/0 means: Take x and divide it among nothing, how much does nothing have? It doesn't make any sense, even with 0.

0/0: I take nothing and give it to no one, how much does no one have? There is no number that represents what "no one" have. It simply doesn't make sense.

Edited November 6, 2015 by Blaze Bronson

[Gernia 690]

I've taken 3 Calculus courses in high school and college and form what I've learned is that you can't get a real answer. I've learned that it's described as "undefined". You're trying to find how many times nothing goes into nothing. I don't think I need to say anything else other than that, but that should explain why you are getting that issue.

[Summer Breeze 2,522]

Its easy: you've got no cookies and you want to share them with no friends, its a strange situation and you are sad because you have no cookies and no friends (asked sirie)

[Celtore 2,769]

Yeah, dividing by zero is never a good thing and results in nothing but horrible and surprising software bugs every so often. Every time you divide by something, you better have a try catch around the block or an if statement checking the denominator.

 

The problem itself is actually really complex and deals with some imaginary number craziness. There was a numberphile video I remember watching on YouTube that was kind of interesting though that explained it.

 

Ah! Here it is!