Re: Interesting math

Evan Kirshenbaum wrote:

Hatunen <hatunen@xxxxxxx> writes:

Division by zero is undefined. Anyone who has even dabbled in basic
number theory knows that. And division by zero does not create an
infinite number for that reason. What we CAN say is that as the
divisor approaches zero the result grows larger and larger.

I'm sure you know this, but this is only necessarily true if the
dividend is constant. If the dividend and divisor are functions of a
variable, the quotient can go to anything you like as the divisor
approaches zero. 2x/x, for example, will approach two. x^2/x will
approach zero. If the divisor goes to zero faster than the dividend
does, the quotien will, in fact, diverge to infinity.

And this is precisely why, once upon a time, 0/0 was commonly spoken of as
an "indeterminate form" rather than as "undefined" or (as the kids
do) "NaN".

--
Roland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food.

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