Dividing by Zero

before you all jump at me i dont support this theory myself, but my lecturer claims that this works, and that he has a proof that works as long as maths as we know it works.

basically he made a new number up called nullity, which is beyond the number line, in a similar way to the imaginary number i, and said it was the answer. in fairness that is the same method that has been used to describe sqrt(-1) though.

heres some links about it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2006/12/06/divide_zero_feature.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2006/12/12/nullity_061212_feature.shtml
 
Valentino said:
differentiate the top and bottom and see if this helps

sin(x)/x is 1 when x = 0 ;)
Click to expand...

the limit as x tends to 0 is 1 yes. But sin(0)/0 is undefined.

0/0 is undefined (or nullity, a more or less useless number), and x/0 is infinity in the complex plane (see my the link above).
Simples
 
DRZ said:
x/x = 1

x=0

Stuff cannot be divided by zero but any number divided by itself is 1. Is the answer infinity, 1, 0 or something else?

I apologise if this runs to a billion pages...
Click to expand...

Zero is a special case. Imagine you're dividing nothing into no groups. How much nothing does each of these non-existent groups get exactly? :p
 
The best idea would be to create a new mathematical identity, like complex numbers!

iMAGINARY for the win :)
 
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