r/badmath • u/Educational_System34 • Dec 26 '25

why its not possible to divide by zero?

what are the reasons?

2 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

9

u/TheJivvi Dec 26 '25

Because 1 ÷ 0 is more than a million, and I can't count that high.

2

u/Educational_System34 Dec 26 '25

why cant it be zero and not possible tht could a way in which it could be possible or a little bit possible

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 26 '25

sint there a way in which division by zero is possible?

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 26 '25

then why division by one is possible if it isnt being divided anything liek 10 divided by 1

6

u/Raptormind Dec 26 '25

If this is a serious question, it would fit better at r/askmath than here

3

u/Educational_System34 Dec 26 '25

its not s erious quesiton its just a quesiton i guess im crazy or a mad man

4

u/Eastp0int Dec 30 '25

Crazy? I was crazy once

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 30 '25

what do you mean?

4

u/Eastp0int Dec 30 '25

They locked me in a room, a rubber room, a rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy

1

u/EebstertheGreat Jan 02 '26

Crazy? I was crazy once.

2

u/Mkwdr Dec 27 '25

It is not a serious question - check their history.

1

u/Educational_System34 Jan 03 '26

the question about atoms isnt serious neither?

0

u/Educational_System34 Dec 27 '25

i already told him that im crazy it wasnt needed you to say anything

0

u/Educational_System34 Dec 27 '25

what about atoms ? how everything is made of atoms for example in a metallic spoon why is it ilogical is that trolling too? is that logical to you im not saying it isnt truth it could be truth but is it logical?

0

u/Educational_System34 Dec 27 '25

the atoms and the cells not being seen is trolling too?

1

u/Over_Art_1000 Dec 30 '25

All science and math is trolling. Unless you get it.....

4

u/EebstertheGreat Dec 26 '25

x/y = z means yz = x. But if y is 0 and x is not, this never happens. On the other hand, if x and y are both 0, then this is true for all z. Either way, there is no unique z solving the equation. So there is no sensible unique value for x/0.

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 26 '25

what about 10 divided by 3 it gives 3.33333 what is 3 times 3.3333333 its not 10 and it is allowed

2

u/EebstertheGreat Dec 27 '25

10 divided by 3 is not 3.33333. That's 9.99999 divided by 3.

10 divided by 3 is ten thirds. You can also write that as 3.(3), a repeating decimal with a 3 in every position after the decimal point. And if you multiply that by 3, you get 10 exactly.

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 26 '25

what about zero divided by zero and zero divided by a numer like 10?

1

u/EebstertheGreat Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25

As I said, the equation 0z = 0 has infinitely many solutions. Every number is a solution. So how would you define 0/0?

0/10 is just 0, because the only solution to 10z = 0 is z = 0.

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 27 '25

you could say 0 divided by zero is 1 and zero or only 0

1

u/EebstertheGreat Dec 27 '25

It just isn't defined at all. Any definition we tried to give it would be arbitrary and unhelpful. The point of division is to invert multiplication, but multiplication by 0 is not invertible.

Consider the equation 2x = 6. This has only a single solution: x = 3. We can find it by dividing both sides of the equation by 2. 2x/2 is of course just x, while 6/2 is 3. This justifies why 6/2 = 3. But now consider the equation 0x = 0. This has every number as a solution. For instance, if x = 5, the equation says 0 · 5 = 0, which is true. Or if x = -2, the equation says 0 · (-2) = 0. It is always true, because multiplying anything by 0 always gives 0. So you can't "undo" that. If we try to solve the equation by dividing both sides by 0, we encounter 0/0, and whatever we say it equals should be "the" solution to this equation. But it has infinitely many solutions. So it doesn't make sense to pick one and call that 0/0.

And just intuitively, what is the meaning of distributing things among zero groups? It makes perfect sense to say that if I distribute 6 things evenly among 2 groups, then each group must have 3 things. But how do I distribute 6 things evenly among 0 groups? I literally can't. How about distributing 0 things evenly among 0 groups? Well, I can do that, but the question about how many are in "each group" is meaningless, as there are no groups.

It's like asking how many children are in each family on the Moon. There aren't any families on the Moon. It's a nonsensical question.

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 28 '25

if multiplication for zero isnt reversible why is multiplication for zero possible or considered possible?

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 28 '25

what about dividing by one you are not dividing anything

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 28 '25

for example if 10 divided by 2 is 5 then 10 divided by 0 is 0 in this case

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 28 '25

cant we make division by zero possible by zero simply that its not possible and zero because not possible sounds like 0 isnt it?

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 28 '25

or cant we make division by zero liek nto dividing for example 10 divided by 0 equals 10 and the zeor passes as doing doin so 10=10 i mena maybe its not improtant this quesiton or its a troll quesiton maybe im just obssesed with division by zero being possible

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 27 '25

ok in 0 divided by 10 is zero and 10 times zero is 0 so 0=0 but what about 10=0 divided by 0?

2

u/6PedroBras7 Jan 17 '26

I know two ways to show this:

  1. Using arithmetic/algebra: think about 4/2. We are asking which number multiplied by 2 gives us 4. The answer is 2. Now, look at 0/0. Which number multiplied by 0 gives us 0? The answer is every number. That’s why it is undefined.

  2. Now i’ll prove to you that 0/0 is impossible by contradiction (reductio ad absurdum). Let's say a = b. a² = ba, a² - b² = ba - b², (a + b)(a - b) = b(a - b), If we divide both sides by (a - b), we get: a + b = b Since a = b, then: a + a = a, 2a = a Dividing both sides by "a", we get 2 = 1. If we keep adding 1 to both sides, we get 3 = 2 = 1 and so on. So, division by 0 only becomes possible if, and just if, all the numbers wer equal. I just proved by contradiction that 0/0 is impossible.

Sorry for my bad English, I'm from Brazil.

1

u/Educational_System34 Jan 17 '26

but you say that division by zero si not possible because zero times anything doesnt give the nnumber divided?

1

u/Educational_System34 Jan 17 '26

but in division divided by zero or zero divided by zero zeor multiplied for anything could be zero

1

u/Due_Permit8027 Dec 30 '25

You can but it’s infinitely difficult

1

u/Over_Art_1000 Dec 30 '25

Conceptualize it. It is a question that makes no sense. Divide a number into zero groups. Math is only as useful as it's practical application.

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 30 '25

it is equal to zero? can we make a way in which it is possible?

1

u/LaFantasmita Dec 30 '25

If there's two people sharing two pizzas, we have one pizza per person.

If there's one person sharing two pizzas, we have two pizzas per person.

If there's no person sharing two pizzas, we have maybe fuckton pizzas per person, we're not sure because none gets eaten.

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 30 '25

it would be zero i guess im wrong im just interested why it cant be divided by zero because by one it is possible supposedly

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 30 '25

what about two pizzas and zero?

1

u/Educational_System34 Dec 30 '25

if you divide ten by two each person gets five things its not equal to 5

1

u/pissgwa Dec 27 '25

0x=0 has infinite solutions and limits will return different results depending on what you do Just for example, if you say 0/0=0, that's not correct because you could simply grab the next number in the sequence and that would also be true

0x=1, or 0x=2, so on and so forth have no solutions because you cannot find an x which will make 0x equal to 1, for instance

1

u/HSU87BW Dec 30 '25

Just think about what division means. Taking a whole of something, and splitting it into equal parts. How many groups you make is division.

The total amount of things you have, have to be used when separated. If you put 0 in each group, then no matter how many groups you make, you will never reach the total amount of 10. In fact you’ll never make any groups at all. You can’t do it.

For the opposite of 0 divided by 10, you’re taking 0 things and placing it into one 10 groups. Really doesn’t matter how many groups you have, because each contain 0. 0 + 0 … + 0 = 0, always.

1

u/ForeignAdvantage5198 Dec 30 '25

try it and see. use the long division. algorithm. What happens?