eli5: Why haven’t mathematicians invented a symbol for x/0 like they have pi and imaginary numbers?

Question

eli5: Why haven’t mathematicians invented a symbol for x/0 like they have pi and imaginary numbers?

In: 277

Answer 1

In computing there is [NaN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaN) (Not a Number) for results that are undefined or unrepresentable. It is there really to signal and propagate error state. There are number of ways to [get NaN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaN#Operations_generating_NaN) including x/0, but once you have an NaN all further operations take that NaN will keep returning NaN.

While useful for computing as far I know it’s not particularly useful for mathematicians?