Go easy on me.
In: Mathematics
You can have zero groups of something.
What you can’t do is work out how many groups of zero objects you would need to total another number than zero.
Ten million groups of zero objects won’t even get you to 1 object in total, nor will 20 million groups, or 12, or 500 billion.
And though zero is an exception, that doesn’t help either. Zero groups of zero objects will total zero. But so will 1, 2, 3, 50 quintillion. So what’s the ‘answer’ when you divide by zero? Either no answer at all, or every single possible answer imaginable.
Multiplying is easy. Dividing by zero is impossible and gives only nonsense answers.
Multiplication is repeated addition. It says if I add a number (let’s say 3) together some number of times (say 6), what does that give me? 3 x 6 = 18
Division is basically repeated subtraction. If I have some number (let’s say 18), how many times can I subtract this other number (like 6) from it. 18 ÷ 6 = 3
How many times can you subtract 0 from 18? Infinity times. Since infinity is not a number, but an idea you cannot divide by 0.
Imagine that you have zero cookies and you split them evenly among zero friends. How many cookies does each person get? See? It doesn’t make sense. And Cookie Monster is sad that there are no cookies, and you are sad that you have no friends.
(Stolen quote)
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?
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?
…
…
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.
You can, but it’s undefined. 3/4 is 3 apples n 4 ppl and everyone gets the same amount. 0/4 is no appl n 4 ppl, no appl for the ppl. 3/0 is 3 apples no people all nonexistent ppl get same portion of 3 apples. 0/0 is no appl no ppl all nonexistent ppl get same amount of nonexistent appl.
If you have any number of things in a row it is n x 1 = n. Now you have any number of things with no row which is n x 0 = 0.
If multiplication is repeated addition then division is repeated subtraction. When you divide by 0 you are subtracting 0 from another number infinitely and you never get anywhere.
Just like multiplication is repeated additions, division is repeated subtractions.
You have 12 apples and want to divide them among 4 people. So the question is, how many times can you take 4 from 12?
1. 12 – 4 = 8
2. 8 – 4 = 4
3. 4 – 4 = 0
3 times.
Now then. You have 10 apples and want to divide them among 0 people. So the question is, how many times can you take 0 from 10?
1. 10 – 0 = 10
2. 10 – 0 = 10.
Uh-oh.
You have two apples on your table. Multiply them by two…. how many do you have.
Now you have two other apples on your table. Sort them into zero piles.
Suppose you were holding a pencil in your hand and I asked you to break it in to two pieces (divide by two) you could do that. But, if I asked you to break it in to zero pieces (divide by zero) you couldn’t do it. The universe would explode.
Because Mathematicians refuses to believe that you can have 8 apples and 0 baskets to put them in.
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