In the world of mathematics, many odd results are possible when we change the rules, but there's one rule that most of us have been warned not to defy that is don't divide by zero (0). How can the simple combination of an everyday number and a basic operation cause such an issue?
Usually, dividing by smaller numbers gives the bigger result.
For example, 8/2 =4
8/1 =18/0.1 =80
8/0.01 =800
8/0.001=8000
It looks like if we keep dividing by smaller numbers all the way down to zero, the result will increase to the largest possible number. Then, isn't the answer to 8 divided by zero actually infinity? That may echo possible, but all we really know is that if we divide 8 by a number that tends towards zero, the result tends towards infinity and that is not the same thing as saying that 8 divided by 0 is equal to infinity.
Let's first understand what DIVISION means.
8 divided by 2 means "how many times must we add 2 together to get 8," [2+2+2+2=8] or "2 times what equals to 8?" [2*?=8]. Dividing by a number is basically the reverse of multiplying by it.
8 / 2 = 4
2 * 4 = 8
If we multiply any number by a given number X, we can say if there's any number that can be multiplied by afterward to get back to where we started.
If there is a new number is known as Multiplicative Inverse of X.
For example, If we multiply 7 by 2 to get 14, then we can multiply by one-half to get back to 7.
So the Multiplicative Inverse of 2 is one-half,
The product of any number and its multiplicative inverse is always 1.
For example 2*1/2=1
If we want to divide by Zero, we need to find its multiplicative inverse, which should be 1/0. This would have to be such a number that multiplying it by zero would give 1.
1/0*0=1
but because anything multiplied by zero is still zero, such a number is impossible, so zero has no multiplicative inverse.
For example 1*0=0
Ultimately, Mathematicians have broken such rules.
For example, there was no such thing as taking the square root of negative numbers but then mathematicians introduce the concept of i which is an imaginary number. It was the opening up of wholly new mathematical word of complex numbers. In the same case, we can apply here, Let us say that the symbol infinity means 1/0 [∞=1/0].
∞ =1/0(multiplicative inverse of zero)
0*∞ =1
0*∞ =1
that means (0*∞)1+(0*∞)1=2
(0+0)*(∞) =2 using distributive property
0*∞ =2
but we have already defined this above as equal to one, while the other side of the equation is still telling us it's equal to 2. so it proves one equals two [1=2]. But this is a contradiction in the world of numbers.
If 1,2 or any other number were equal to zero but having infinity equal to zero is ultimately not all that useful to mathematicians. There actually is something called the Riemann sphere that involves dividing by zero by a different method. Dividing by zero in the most obvious way doesn't work out so great. But that should not stop us from living dangerously and experimenting with breaking mathematical rules to see if we can invent fun, new worlds to explore X.
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