8 Infinity Facts

[hazelm]

I do not know if any of this interests anyone.  However,  I can't let go of the last one:  "Dividing by 0".  The claim is that you can not divide by 0, that it is an error code.  Something is hanging fire there.  Divide - say 8 - by 0.  Answer:  0 with remainder of 8.  No?

 

https://www.thoughtco.com/infinity-facts-that-will-blow-your-mind-4154547?utm_campaign=wilat&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cn_nl&utm_content=17982310&utm_term=

[hazelm]

I do not know if any of this interests anyone.  However,  I can't let go of the last one:  "Dividing by 0".  The claim is that you can not divide by 0, that it is an error code.  Something is hanging fire there.  Divide - say 8 - by 0.  Answer:  0 with remainder of 8.  No?

 

https://www.thoughtco.com/infinity-facts-that-will-blow-your-mind-4154547?utm_campaign=wilat&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cn_nl&utm_content=17982310&utm_term=

Ah!  Never mind.  You cannot divide by 0 when 0 stands for nothing because, once you divide by 0, you have divided by something.  Right? Infinity! 

[ralfcis]

Although math considers 0 a legit number sometimes it isn't when it associates with infinity. Any answer that is infinity is a wrong answer. I saw an interesting proof recently (from 1790) that .99999 infinite nines is = 1.  At what point do you have enough nines to say it equals 1. The answer is never. How could 2 different numbers be equal? Because if infinity can be  removed from the equation, the equation will have a finite answer.

Edited September 8, 2019 by ralfcis

[hazelm]

Although math considers 0 a legit number sometimes it isn't when it associates with infinity. Any answer that is infinity is a wrong answer. I saw an interesting proof recently (from 1790) that .99999 infinite nines is = 1.  At what point do you have enough nines to say it equals 1. The answer is never. How could 2 different numbers be equal? Because if infinity can be  removed from the equation, the equation will have a finite answer.

Now I'll ponder that  But, first, a cousin is awaiting a paper from me.  Until later......  Thanks.

Edited September 8, 2019 by hazelm

[ralfcis]

I read the article and it's the usual science journalism trivia. Infinity is an attic stuffed with dust. Is the dust important? No only in that you must get rid of it. Infinity is mostly filler.  Infinity is what gets in the way of finding meaningful answers. When people start pondering infinity as being worth pondering, they are lost in the trees and can't see the forest. Those people spend their lives calculating pi. That's what the article should have been about.

Edited September 8, 2019 by ralfcis

[hazelm]

I read the article and it's the usual science journalism trivia. Infinity is an attic stuffed with dust. Is the dust important? No only in that you must get rid of it. Infinity is mostly filler.  Infinity is what gets in the way of finding meaningful answers. When people start pondering infinity as being worth pondering, they are lost in the trees and can't see the forest. Those people spend their lives calculating pi. That's what the article should have been about.

That's what Science Daily is - journalism (mostly) trivia.  Once in a while you get a good one.  But mostly, we get stories of tests that are being done.  Someone else wants to confirm with tests of their own and off they go.  Isn't that how science works.  You come up with a good idea.  You want or need someone else to confirm your results?  Welcome to the team.  :-)

[LaurieAG]

You can try to divide by zero in Windows 98a upwards and you will receive the message "you cannot divide by zero". On earlier versions of Windows you received a negative infinity message.

[exchemist]

In arithmetic, division by zero is strictly speaking said to be "undefined".  In ordinary use, one thinks of division by zero as something that would lead to a infinite result, i.e. n/0 = ∞. 

[GAHD]

The documentary "Dangerous Knowledge" About Cantor and others does a good job running though infinities. Yes, plural infinity, as there are many of them and you can divide and multiply and add and subtract in them. No wonder the concept made people go mad thinking about it, and made the mad flip back over to sane.

 

[hazelm]

The documentary "Dangerous Knowledge" About Cantor and others does a good job running though infinities. Yes, plural infinity, as there are many of them and you can divide and multiply and add and subtract in them. No wonder the concept made people go mad thinking about it, and made the mad flip back over to sane.

I once worked for a science research company.  There was a mathematician there who, when he had a big problem to solve who would come out into that hall and walk up and down frantically mumbling to himself.  I worried about him. 

 

As for dividing by 0, I still say you can.  What you can't divide by is "nothing" because the 0 has then become something.  Infinity.  Of course, that opens the question of multiplying it back.  I think that works.  Off to do some more 'pondering.  Another infinity?

Edited September 9, 2019 by hazelm

[exchemist]

In Quantum field theory calculations infinities can be renormalized ie got rid of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renormalization  :)

Yes I know. 

[sluggo]

hazelm;

 

If integer division means partitioning a quantity into a number of parts of equal size, then you can't divide a quantity into less than 2 parts. If the divisor was 1, that would be redundant and equivalent to doing nothing. Zero isn't a quantity. Rephrased as: when I looked into the pickle barrel, there was 'no' 'thing'.

[Maine farmer]

Although math considers 0 a legit number sometimes it isn't when it associates with infinity. Any answer that is infinity is a wrong answer. I saw an interesting proof recently (from 1790) that .99999 infinite nines is = 1.  At what point do you have enough nines to say it equals 1. The answer is never. How could 2 different numbers be equal? Because if infinity can be  removed from the equation, the equation will have a finite answer.

I was taught to use the phrase, "increases without bounds" in place of "infinity."

[ralfcis]

Increases to a bound. Like absolute zero. It is a bound but it takes an infinity to reach it.