[NBLUG/talk] OT: RE: The Romans' ban on zero

[Jennifer Tracy]

All right boys, and perhaps some girls, you are going to give this newbie 
nightmares that go back to her days of studying for her physics degree.

Back to linux. :-)

Jenn


>From: Eric Eisenhart <eric at nblug.org>
>Reply-To: talk at nblug.org
>To: talk at nblug.org
>Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] The Romans' ban on zero
>Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 11:38:49 -0700
>
> > So 1/0 = infinity.
>
>BTW, this doesn't hold up, either...
>
>By the same logic:
>1/0 = infinity
>2/0 = infinity
>1/0 = infinity = 2/0
>1/0 = 2/0
>1 = 2
>
>The last of which is, obviously, false.
>
>Hence, n/0 = undefined.  It's not 0.  It's not n.  It's not 1.  It's not
>infinity.
>
>In most computerized mathematical systems, that's "NaN" which is a lot like
>NULL in a database in that NaN != NaN.
>
>(in other words, 1/0 = NaN, 2/0 = NaN, NaN != NaN, so you can't get to 1=2)
>--
>Eric Eisenhart
>NBLUG Co-Founder & Vice-President Pro Tempore
>The North Bay Linux Users Group
>http://nblug.org/
>eric at nblug.org, IRC: Freiheit at freenode, AIM: falschfreiheit, ICQ: 48217244
><< attach3 >>

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