Dividing By Zero

New Theory is a Big Nothing

[digitalghost]

Computers simply cannot divide by zero. Try it on your calculator and you'll get an error message.

But Dr Anderson has come up with a theory that proposes a new number - 'nullity' - which sits outside the conventional number line (stretching from negative infinity, through zero, to positive infinity).

Link to Nothing [bbc.co.uk]

People were quick to point out that the good Dr. has solved nothing, err, hasn't solved the problem of dividing by zero, as it's not a problem really. And besides, NaN has been around for quite some time now.

Dr. Bonehead has also solved the ages old chicken and egg problem by announcing that the 'chegg' came first.

[eelixduppy]

>>>"If your heart pacemaker divides by zero, you're dead."

;)

As for 'nullity', obviously he hasn't thought of the impact that this would have on L' Hopital's Rule [google.com]...hehe

I'm sticking to what I know.

[LifeinAsia]

If your heart pacemaker divides by zero, you're dead."

You're dead because a lazy programmer didn't include basic error handling in the system. If you're getting this situation (trying to divide by zero), you're getting an abnormal situation that shouldn't be occuring. The code should take care of that with normal error handling.

Allowing the program to continue past that point with a quasi-value does not fix the underlying problem that you have an abnormal situation. Unless you later have error handling to handle that quasi-value. But if you're going to do that anyway, why not just have the initial error handling for the divide by zero situation instead of allowing the error to propegate further along into the program?

It's almost always better to fix problems earlier on. Problems left unhandled usually become much bigger problems very quickly.

[oneguy]

If your heart pacemaker divides by zero, you're dead.

Who's building these crazy pacemakers, anyway?

I'll just stick with ones that prefer not to find ways to divide by zero.

Boring story, but some of the comments are entertaining.

[weeks]

Ya gotta check out the comments. This is my idea of funny. (Had never heard this one before: Who is bigger, Mrs. Bigger or Mrs. Bigger's baby? Answer: The baby a little Bigger.) Some of the Brits have really got their knickers in a knot over this.)

[encyclo]

What's the difference between inventing a "nullity" compared to the concept of imaginary numbers [en.wikipedia.org] and complex numbers that we all learned about in school (setting apart from the huge logical errors in this particular theory)? Mathematicians have already set the precedent for inventing numbers for otherwise intractible calculations.

By the way, on a related note the chicken-and-egg conundrum has already been "solved" [cnn.com], and in a much more satisfactory way than this math professor's efforts. The egg came first. You can draw this conclusion if you consider that the first chicken must have come about by a genetic mutation, either major or minor. As genetic changes do not occur during an animal's life but during embryo formation, the egg which led to the first chicken was laid by an animal which was not a chicken, but merely closely resembled one. :)

[mcavic]

Utter rubbish. They shouldn't be teaching this sort of thing in schools.

Agreed. We already had an answer for dividing by zero. NaN. Or, if you consider zero to mean "infinitely close to zero", then x/0 = infinity.

[minnapple]

I am sitting at the bar with an empty glass of beer and ask the barkeep for one more.
empty = zero

Does she give me an empty glass of beer?

No, she pours me a full one.
zero = full

Full is not a number, but it is something you can put your lips around.

[phranque]

if i remember correctly, l'hopital's rule in laymen's terms was "calculate more and more of less and less until you approach a discernable limit"

infinity is that warm feeling you get when you realize you are approaching that limit.
"nullity" sounds like when you realize you actually wet your trousers instead.

[Automan Empire]

Some quotes on this subject:

Black holes are where God divided by zero.
-Steven Wright

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? "The EGG, by about a BILLION YEARS!" (figuring back to the first single-cell proto-being to successfully replicate and evolve)

-Automan