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Math Teacher DIVIDES BY ZERO (Not Satire)

bbc.co.uk — Schoolchildren from Caversham have become the first to learn a brand new theory that dividing by zero is possible using a new number - 'nullity'. But the suggestion has left many mathematicians cold.

Who dugg this? Made popular Dec 11, 2007

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  • atdigg, on 12/11/2007, -0/+11"But the suggestion has left many mathematicians cold." Why? Because he's a nullity.
  • wayback09, on 12/11/2007, -7/+18Only Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
  • Error601, on 12/11/2007, -0/+10Well, that was silly. The problem isn't the machine can't divide by the zero. It's that there is a problem with your algorithm if you're asking it to.
  • hs112186, on 12/11/2007, -2/+10This teacher is a ***** idiot, this whole concept was stupid and pointless 6 months ago when it first popped up in the news, its still stupid. Dugg down for stupidity.
  • blitzer, on 12/11/2007, -1/+9Either way.. why are they teaching this to school children?
  • LordSkywalker, on 12/11/2007, -1/+9Kids today don't even know how to multiply since they just whip out their cell phones. Teaching them a controversial math theory is a little above their heads.
  • theshizzler, on 12/11/2007, -0/+7This is just a placeholder for an asymptote. Lame.
  • fredricko, on 12/11/2007, -0/+7I'm no mathematician, but when you divide both sides by (a-b), you negate one solution. So, a = b = 0 is one (trivial) solution and a = b is the other, where b can be any number based on your initial assumption.

  • mike40033, on 12/11/2007, -0/+6I pity his students.
  • KnightMareInc, on 12/11/2007, -0/+5breaking

    UPDATED: 13:45 GMT, 12 December 2006
  • dada0, on 12/11/2007, -1/+6I remember reading about this. This is horrible, because basically he's teaching these children that he's the one who invented NaN. This is a well-known concept--it's just that he twisted the idea a little bit and called it his own. NaN actually has no place at all in that curriculum.

    I know I wouldn't want my children being taught this kind of nonsense. He needs to have his position as a teacher re-examined.
  • 10001110101, on 12/11/2007, -0/+5"Nullity" sounds like something the kids on the short bus would talk about.
    And, this "news" is over a year old.
    Here's a more detailed writeup: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/British_computer_scien ...
  • SonicRush, on 12/11/2007, -0/+4As lame and arbitrary as it was when it hit the front page months ago.
  • jezzadebate, on 12/11/2007, -0/+3It's amazing how many "unsolvable" problems you can solve when you make up new numbers
  • BuzFortuna, on 12/11/2007, -0/+2Maybe I'm just not theorem savvy but if I knew I could just make up my own (or redefine) numbers I could prove any problem you could give me.
  • arcooke, on 12/11/2007, -0/+2And it was on Digg then too..
  • Monti0, on 12/11/2007, -0/+2Nullity... There's maths and then there's MAKING ***** UP.
    From the comments:
    "This new number has profound effects on the computing industry, by allowing the division of zero by zero many errors that have previously made things impossible have become quite possible."
    What?!
    Yes, let's invent a new number that can not be expressed as a function of any other number, only the mathematical exceptions that defines itself. Now we need to change the way we count and redesign the logic gates in ALL computers everywhere and then we can all have ice-cream!
  • bahamutxd, on 12/11/2007, -2/+4Looks like they need the "No Child Left Behind" program to straighten things out. /sarcasm
  • inactive, on 12/11/2007, -1/+3NaN is a computer concept that means nothing in real math
  • soulonice, on 12/11/2007, -0/+2OLD NEWS

    "UPDATED: 13:45 GMT, 12 December 2006"
  • pixel4e, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1a^2 - b^2 = ab - b^2
  • MattB123, on 12/11/2007, -1/+2Open their minds? Empower them with knowledge? Build logic skills?
  • slashbot, on 12/11/2007, -1/+2Nullity? Buried as crap.

    How about infinity. Sounds like an asymptotic limit. What kind of math teacher is he? High school?
  • inactive, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1And funny yet, some Digg users will believe this works..
  • GaiaAP, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1a + b = b ↔ b = 0!
  • MerryMortician, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1nulity sucks. i want PLARD!
  • xtmno3, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1http://www.digg.com/search?s=nullity&submit=Search ...

    1 year and 3 days ago it was on the front page.
  • dmcbride6, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1He didn't prove /0 is legal...it would appear he tried to redefine nullity. If someone did infact prove that /0 is legal - we have bigger issues, as I believe it has already been proven that /0 is ILlegal. To make matters worse, everything we do with math (and every proof) is based on the fundamental concept of what zero is...

    I love how the highschool student comes in OMG GAME OVER GAME OVER!!! PHI IS FLUX!!
  • dmcbride6, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1Or maybe just toss the whole point of proofs out the window from the get-go. Hell...we sure could make strides faster!
  • papavb, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1this was controversial like a year ago, from Wikipedia:

    "Anderson quickly gained publicity in December 2006 when the regional BBC South Today reported his claim of "having solved a 1200 year old problem", namely that of division by zero. However, commentators quickly pointed out that his ideas are just a variation of the standard IEEE 754 concept of NaN (Not a Number), a datum that has been commonly employed on computers in floating point arithmetic for many years.[2] Dr Anderson defended the criticism of his claims on BBC Berkshire on 2006-12-12.[3]"
  • inactive, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1As do I. There's already a name for the thing produced by a divide-by-zero, and its "infinity" (of a sort). And it can be manipulated as well, if you know the Calculus.
  • Rev0lver, on 12/11/2007, -1/+1Thanks guys. My head hurts now.
  • venousto, on 12/31/2008, -0/+0http://phebus.journalintime.com/forum/2006-05-02-z ...

    phi=1/0 <=> 0phi=1
  • Hermiod, on 12/11/2007, -6/+6What the article does not mention is that these children's teacher is Chuck Norris.
  • ClaudiuUSA, on 12/11/2007, -0/+0See, the problem lies in that you say
    a^2 - a^2 = a^2 - a^2
    and somehow get that to
    a = 0.
  • dada0, on 01/20/2008, -0/+0Yes; which is why I said it has no place in that curriculum.
  • mmkassem, on 12/11/2007, -0/+0since: you assumed that a = b
    therefor: (a - b) / (a -b ) is not equal to 1 (only true if a != b)
    therefor: you can not use it in your derivation
  • inactive, on 12/11/2007, -3/+1You're an idiot.
  • iching, on 12/11/2007, -14/+9Theorem : All numbers are equal to zero.
    Proof: Suppose that a=b. Then
    a = b
    a^2 = ab
    a^2 - b^2 = ab - b^2
    (a + b)(a - b) = b(a - b)
    a + b = b
    a = 0
  • iching, on 12/11/2007, -7/+1Do you know who and when
    even discovered the concept of ZERO?
  • holzp, on 12/11/2007, -8/+2Your johnson, whenever you bring this up with the opposite sex.

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