Dividing by 0

[joshwriting]

I was minding my own business and reading my email, when one note included a link to a BBC article on a new discovery by a computer scientist about dividing by 0: Nullity.

He presented it, apparently, to be peer-reviewed. The 4th graders found it initially confusing, but eventually felt that they understood it and approved of it.

The article is here, along with a gazillion comments from BBC readers, many of whom might say "We are not amused."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2006/12/06/divide_zero_feature.shtml

If you get a search page, instead of the article, use the word "nullity" and it is the article entitled "1200-year-old problem 'easy'."

Comments

[zapthatmonster.livejournal.com]

o.o

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Shortly being exposed to i the square root of -1, I came up with the idea of j. j was defined as being = 1/0. It took about half an hour of work to show that any mathematics that contained j had to be inconsistant. (It should have taken 5, but oh well).

[dpolicar]

I enjoyed "I have no idea why this nonsense collection of sentences is being reported on. " as a comment.