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[–] 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

My favorite way to connect people with academia is pointing out how recently zero was invented because even the most reluctant “I don’t know math” person understands zero these days.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Can you really understand zero? I mean, I get what it represents, but I still sometimes struggle to understand its usage...like, you can’t divide with zero thats for sure, but did you know you can divide a number with a really small number (like an infinitely small number) and you get a really large number (like infinitely large)? So, in that special space, if you suddenly replace “0” with a “number-so-close-to-zero-it-can-smell-it” feel free to divide and conquer, and get infinity.

    Oh, and sometimes, if you feel like math is letting you down, remember, you can always use positive and negative zeroes, so your math-thing can now work!

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I don't understand why you can't divide by zero.

    If you turn it into a word problem 10/1 could be stated as "If you have 10 things and put them in a bucket, how many things do you have in the bucket?"

    10/2 becomes "If you have 10 things, and and put an equal amount of them in two different buckets, how many things are in each bucket?"

    So, wouldn't 10/0 become "If you have 10 things, and don't put any of them into the bucket, how many things are in the bucket?"

    I'm bad at math, go easy on me.

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  • [+] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    I think I get it, thanks for taking the time to explain.

    With 10/2 there are two buckets, and 10/1 there is 1, so with 10/0 I was wrong to phrase it as there is a 'bucket with nothing in it', it should be 'there is no bucket, so you can't put anything in the bucket, even if you wanted to.' Right?

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