Go easy on me.
In: Mathematics
More ELI10: In math there is something called “limits.” It allows us to guess numbers that we can’t actually calculate just by looking at were they would appear to land.
Quick example: Take the sequence `1 2 X 4 5`. We don’t know what `X` is, but if we approach `X` from the left side (start lower and count up), it looks like we’ll land on 3, and if we approach it from the right side (start higher and count down) it looks like we’ll land on 3, therefore we can say with a decent amount of certainty that `X = 3` even though we don’t actually have a way to calculate it.
When it comes to dividing by 0, things get a little tricky. Take the following sequence of calculations:
`1/3 = 0.333_`
`1/2 = 0.5`
`1/1 = 1`
`1/0.5 = 2`
`1/0.01 = 100`
`1/0 = X`
You can see that as we approach dividing by 0, the numbers seem to go up. It may seem easy then to just say “`1/0` equals infinity,” then and be done with it, but there’s more. We just approached it from the right side, but watch what happens when we approach it from the left:
`1/-3 = -0.333_`
`1/-2 = -0.5`
`1/-1 = -1`
`1/-0.5 = -2`
`1/-0.01 = -100`
`1/0 = X`
Now it seems to approach negative infinity. Since approaching from the right points to infinity, and approaching it from the left points to negative infinity, there’s no “true,” answer and therefore we just say that anything divided by 0 is “undefined.”
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