Problems with Zero - Numberphile

"BUT, if I am naughty..." Oh baby, talk nerdy to me~

Matt is very smart for a guy who writes infinity as double zeroes instead of a laying eight

"glorified adding" is the best description of multiplying ever

My 7th grade algebra teacher would only whisper of dividing by zero because it would “upset the calculator gods”. He was one of my favorite teachers ever.

"Only a nerd would tell you differently." cuts to Parker - Sooo, first of all [...]

I suggest we define 1/0 = blue

"Divide" -No "GlOriFieD SuBsTrAcTioN" - YES

"The problem is it's a dangerous number and a lot of things can go horribly wrong with 0" "Mom I got 0 in maths" UH OH

1/0 = blue the secret is out

1÷0= infinity 2÷0= Double infinity There I Fixed it

A video featuring both Matt and James is such a lovely treat. They are infinitely different.

Now, I had always been taught that X/0 was "undefined", while 0/0 was "indeterminate". The logic behind this is that the denominator (or "divisor") should always be able to be made equal to the numerator, by multiplication with some factor. So, for example, 1/2 = .5, thus 2 can be made equal to 1 by multiplication with.5. However, in the case of X/0, there is no factor that can make 0 = X, since 0 times ANYthing is always 0. So, there is no correct answer, therefore, the problem is "undefned". On the other hand, in the case of 0/0, literally ANY factor will make 0 equal to itself, so there is no INcorrect answer. Thus, in essence, any value is equal to any OTHER value, which is impossible. Therefore, the problem is called "indeterminate", since one cannot determine what value best solves the problem.

For the "why does it return Error in a computer" question, the division assembly instructions (at least for x86) are designed to generate an interrupt when the divisor is zero. In other words, they are told to error out.

÷0 looks like a screaming person

12:49 "we could make it anything we want it to be depending on the angle we come at it from" sound life advice right there

6:10 Yes, computers are taught not to divide by 0. The reason is because bitwise math operations are only add and subtract. Multiplication is just repeated adding, while division is repeated subtracting. If you divide by 0, you are telling the computer to subtract 0 from the original until the value of the original is <= 0 and count how many times it needed to subtract it. Older mechanical calculators will get stuck in a loop, so they had a stop button.

3:05 Noooooooooo!!! Draw infinity as a continuous loop not two circles!!!

I divided 1/0 in my calculator and now it runs Super Mario 64.

There's some great footage on Youtube of mechanical calculators, oldschool ones, dividing by zero. No programmed-in "Math Error" there, the things just spin forever making a racket, they're probably subtracting zero over and over but maybe some of them are failing in a more clever way.

A decade later and still a fantastic video!