Re: Re: What is zero divided by zero?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg48591] Re: [mg48563] Re: What is zero divided by zero?
- From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
- Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2004 19:58:13 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: Mathematics & Statistics, Univ. of Mass./Amherst
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- Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu
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A really reasonable thing is to let the user decide what to do about the value of such troublesome expressions. One can do this in Mathematica. (I once proposed making such a user setting available in APL. There's no comparable facility in J.) David W. Cantrell wrote: > drbob at bigfoot.com (Bobby R. Treat) wrote: > >>"zero divided by zero" is four English words, one after the other. The >>meaning of it is whatever we can agree that it means. But we can't >>agree on a useful meaning; it's not as if the subject hasn't come up a >>million times over the past century or two. It is, and will remain, >>undefined. > > > Well, it is normally regarded as being undefined in mathematics _per se_, > yes. But it certainly is defined in some contexts related to computing. > > Examples: > In APL, it's 1 (which, IMO, is quite regrettable), > while in APL's offspring J, it's 0 (which is the only reasonable choice > among the reals). > And it's defined in standard floating-point arithmetic to be NaN. (Now > you're welcomed to say "But that's merely defining it to be 'undefined'!" > Although that's right in some sense, in fact it is nonetheless _defined as > a specific floating-point object_, and that can be useful.) > > David Cantrell > > -- Murray Eisenberg murray at math.umass.edu Mathematics & Statistics Dept. Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H) University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W) 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801 Amherst, MA 01003-9305
- References:
- Re: What is zero divided by zero?
- From: "David W. Cantrell" <DWCantrell@sigmaxi.org>
- Re: What is zero divided by zero?