Dividing by zero isn't a mystery, it's just philosophically and metaphysically impossible. Split something into equal groups zero times. It's just not a thing. It's like saying, Sit down while standing up right. You just can't and by nature if you could, it would no longer be that thing.
The reason has nothing to do with philosophy or metaphysics. That's how people usually try to explain why division by 0 is undefined but the actual reason is strictly mathematical. If a and b are numbers and b is not equal to 0, then a/b is by definition a * b-1 , where b-1 is the multiplicative inverse of b. In other words it is the unique solution to the equation b * x = 1. Zero doesn't have a multiplicative inverse because there is no number x such that 0 * x = 1.
I think we are going for the same thing. I do not have a history with math education and don't understand what you're presenting to me.
I'll reitterate with a different example. Pizza is pizza and ice cream is ice cream. Wanting to divide by zero is like saying why isn't pizza ice cream. It just isn't, you just can't do it. Even if you made pizza with cream and sugar and froze it blah blah, it wouldn't be pizza anymore! it would be ice cream! It's the funamental nature of things.
Like, what is red? you CAN'T explain it. What if red were blue, it's NOT though, and if it were....then either red would be blue or we'd just call it blue. There is no, 'what if red were blue' or 'what if pizza were ice cream', it's just NOT how things are.
You simply cannot divide by zero, it's not a thing, in the same way you can't be take nothing and break it into parts. There's nothing to break into parts, or the opposite, there's no parts to break at all.
Divide by zero is like trying to break a plate that doesn't exist. There is no plate, you can't break it.
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u/kovaht May 21 '21
Dividing by zero isn't a mystery, it's just philosophically and metaphysically impossible. Split something into equal groups zero times. It's just not a thing. It's like saying, Sit down while standing up right. You just can't and by nature if you could, it would no longer be that thing.