It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Zero is a number; in fact, it is a real number. It is on the number line right between 1 and -1. You can add, subtract, and multiply with 0 and get real answers. You can divide numbers into zero and get a real answer, zero.
You can't say anything like that about infinity. It is not on the number line and you can't do computations with it.
Now, consider 1/0. You know that 1/1 =1, 1/0.1 = 10, 1/0.01 = 100, 1/0.001 = 1000, etc... Pick a power of 10 as large as you want and I can find a number larger than 0 that I can divide into 1 and get your number as a result.
In other words, as we divide numbers into 1 and those numbers get closer and closer to 0, the quotient gets larger and larger with no boundary. We conclude then, that 1/0 = infinity.
However, that is just a shorthand notation. Actually, division by zero is undefined. It is more precise to say that Limit 1/x = oo As x gets closer to zero, the value of 1/x x->0 grows without bound (i.e., approaches infinity)
Unfortunately, often people will use the shorthand, without making it clear that this is what's going on. So other people see what they've written, and think that '1/0 = infinity' is an actual statement of fact, when it's not.
In the same way, people will often write '1/infinity = 0', instead of the more precise Limit 1/x = 0 As x grows without bound (i.e., approaches x->oo infinity), the value of 1/x gets closer to 0.
But '1/infinity = 0' is also untrue.
For more about dividing by zero, see the Dr. Math FAQ:
Dividing by Zero
mathforum.org...
originally posted by: TAECOLE7
What is the value of zero? Whatever you make it? Whatever your want it to be? So it works like a decimal? A place holder? In binary code zero is a character.
originally posted by: LumenImagoDei
Zero is all numbers combined so technically it is a number, all of them.
originally posted by: rickymouse
Well, it is one less than one so it should be considered a number. Two less than one is a negative one. You cannot go negative in a vaccum technically, so I feel that maybe negative numbers don't really exist in reality, we only gave a definition to situations where there was an imbalance or deficiency. Negative numbers are just a reference point, they really do not exist.
Except in schools and a society that teaches they exist.
originally posted by: RAY1990
a reply to: TAECOLE7
10 holds value, it's 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1
Romans used numerals simply because IV is 4 and using IIII would begin to get silly.
It's quite the brilliant number and needs to be used in context to attain it's value.
.