Why can you multiply by zero but not divide?

Question

Go easy on me.

In: Mathematics

Answer 1

Let’s say you had a box of 10 tomatoes.

Multiplication says: if you take many of these boxes, how many tomatoes will you have?

Division says: How many of these boxes do you need to get a 100 tomatoes?

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Now say you had a box of 0 tomatoes.

Multiplication says: if you take many of these boxes, you will have no tomatoes.

Division says: How many of these boxes do you need to get a 100 tomatoes?

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Uhh. You have the crashing realization that you can’t get a 100 tomatoes no matter how many boxes you take. And moments after, the computer simulating all of us explodes in a puff of 1s and.. you guessed it, 0s.