[NBLUG/talk] Re: OT division by zero

[Jim Bianchi]

On Fri, 30 May 2003 talk-request at nblug.org wrote:
> > Six times zero is zero.  Six zeroes is as meaningless as six divided
> > by zero, but the answer is still zero, because it's obvious that
> > six zeroes equal zero, just like six paychecks that say $0.00 equal
> > zero dollars.
>
> What I get from the above - you are saying that 6x0 is as meaningless
> as 6/0 and that both answers are zero.  Your paycheck analogy only
> refers to 6x0 - not 6/0.  Six paychecks of $0.00 each gives a total of
> $0.00.  But you failed to consider:  one paycheck of $6.00 split among
> zero people - how much does each person get?  The answer is not zero.
> If it were zero it is saying that someone gets zero dollars, but
> without any people - you can't say that any one person gets anything -
> including zero.  $6.00 divided by zero people = meaningless, not $0.00
>
> Basically the flaw in your argument is the assumption that zero =
> nothing. Zero as a number is different than the concept of nothing. A
> $0.00 paycheck exists and the amount of it is $0.00. But to divide a
> $6.00 paycheck zero times isn't possible and thus has no meaning - it
> doesn't leave anything with an amount of $0.00.
>
> Nadina


	What hit me about Steve's arg was that the term zero was used
with two different meanings: In one place, it is used to mean 'nothing,'
in another place it is used to mean 'some symbol that, at present, has
no meaning' (in other words, something).

-- 
jimbo at sonic.net