I saw this Reddit post today saying "My son's third-grade teacher taught my son that 1 divided by 0 is 0. I wrote her an email to tell her that it is not 0. ...
That’s not what division is though. Division, at least when talking about splitting a pizza, has 2 options.
The first is splitting it into X equal parts. If you split a pizza into 0 equal parts, how large is each part?
The other option with pizza would be to say you are splitting into some unknown number of slices of a specific size. if you split a pizza in to slices that are 0 inches wide, how many slices do you get?
Neither method gives any logical result when using 0 with regards to pizza.
I’m not super great at math, and the concept of division by zero has been somewhat confusing for me. It’s also been a bane to my existence as a programmer. To me, in both scenarios, it makes sense to get back the original number, because 0 equal parts and zero inches wide leaves the original pizza untouched. But I also accept that there are much smarter folks out there who know better than I do, so undefined or NaN is what it is.
To me, in both scenarios, it makes sense to get back the original number, because 0 equal parts and zero inches wide leaves the original pizza untouched
To illustrate why it’s not the original number, ask yourself this question — “How many times can you slice a pizza such that each slice is 0 inches wide?”
Yes, you’re leaving the pizza untouched with each slice, so you will never stop slicing. Or, you will say zero, because slices that are 0 inches wide are not slices at all. Or you’ll just say it can’t be done.
That’s not what division is though. Division, at least when talking about splitting a pizza, has 2 options.
The first is splitting it into X equal parts. If you split a pizza into 0 equal parts, how large is each part?
The other option with pizza would be to say you are splitting into some unknown number of slices of a specific size. if you split a pizza in to slices that are 0 inches wide, how many slices do you get?
Neither method gives any logical result when using 0 with regards to pizza.
I’m not super great at math, and the concept of division by zero has been somewhat confusing for me. It’s also been a bane to my existence as a programmer. To me, in both scenarios, it makes sense to get back the original number, because 0 equal parts and zero inches wide leaves the original pizza untouched. But I also accept that there are much smarter folks out there who know better than I do, so
undefinedorNaNis what it is.Thanks though for explaining it!
To illustrate why it’s not the original number, ask yourself this question — “How many times can you slice a pizza such that each slice is 0 inches wide?”
Yes, you’re leaving the pizza untouched with each slice, so you will never stop slicing. Or, you will say zero, because slices that are 0 inches wide are not slices at all. Or you’ll just say it can’t be done.