As a layperson who is interested in math, imaginary numbers always fascinated me. Like in the real world you taking the square of a negative makes no sense whatso ever, but in theoretical math you can just invent new imaginary numbers, make it so that *i*^2 = -1 and suddenly you have just revolutionized math. If this is useful, why can’t you break other rules and account for them with new imaginary symbols?
So let’s pretend that we call them made up numbers and use *m* to represent them. Why is *m*=1/0 impossible when something like *i*^2 = -1 is not?
In: 27
Take this theoretical proof
Start
1) a = b
Multiply each side by a
2) a² = ab
Subtract b² from each side
3) a² – b² = ab – b²
Factor each side
4) (a + b)(a – b) = b(a – b)
Divide each side by (a – b)
5) (a + b) = b
Substitute b in for a (from what’s given at the start of the proof)
6) b + b = b
Condense
7) 2b = b
Divide by b
8) 2 = 1
So youll note something went wrong here for something to give us a blatantly incorrect statement. That thing is dividing by 0. On the step where you divide by (a – b), this equals to 0 and breaks everything
Latest Answers