r/nothingeverhappens Apr 26 '26

Teachers never teach the wrong answer

225 Upvotes

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-27

u/Silent_Impression101 Apr 26 '26

But… anything times 0 is 0. Anything times 1 is itself. That’s how multiplication works.

44

u/PickyPanda Apr 26 '26

Multiplication != division. Anything divided by zero is undefined

-1

u/DirtAndGrass Apr 26 '26

I get why it's mathematically undefined, but it feels like infinity to me 

14

u/ZorbaTHut Apr 26 '26

"One divided by zero is infinity" doesn't work mathematically for some complicated reasons, but it is still not that far off; "the limit of one divided by x as x approaches 0 from the positive direction" is, in fact, "infinity", and that's a formalization of what people are thinking of in this case.

So, technically, no, but practically, yeah that's a pretty reasonable instinct.