Question

If x divided by x equals 1 than does zero divided by zero equal 1?

Oct 15 at 22:12

Answer

No. 0/0 is a special case called "intedetermined" or "indeterminate form". It's certainly not equal to 0, and it's not undefined either.

Again, it's not "undefined", as some people are saying. It's true that if you have a non-zero number being divided by 0, then THAT'S undefined. But there's a big difference between "indetermined" and "undefined". Indetermined means it can have ANY value, undefined means has NO actual value.

To see why, let's assume 5/0 actually had a value. If 5/0=x, then that means 5=0*x. But you can't multiply a number by 0 and get back 5. so 5/0 is "undefined".

If 0/0 = x, then you get 0=0*x, so x can be any number. Thus, the reason why 0/0 is called "indetermined". You can similarly show that 0^0 is indetermined.

Oct 14 at 11:45

0/0 is undefined.

Oct 14 at 15:31

anything divided by zero is undefined always!

Oct 14 at 19:40

the zero CAN NEVER be in the denominator... it just doesn't work

7/0 doesn't exist

Oct 15 at 0:13

NO this is not defined... not even 0 can be divided by itself, or how can nothing be divided, moreover by nothing?...

Oct 15 at 5:8

No. You can't divide zero by anything, or divide anything by zero. It's not possible. Surely X = 1?

Oct 15 at 10:26

Your answer is no because anything divided by 0 will equal zero, because 0 goes into a number an infinity number of times, or zero times. It also works the other way around. 0 divided by any number will also be zero, because that number can only go into 0 zero times because the definition of zero is nothing. x/x is 1, but you would say 0x/0x would equal zero. You could say x=0, but 0/0 still equals 0 because 0 is nothing.

Oct 15 at 16:7

No. Division means you are separating the above number into a number of groups equal to the bottom number. You cannot separate something into zero groups. This is why x/0 is usually undefined, though it can have some equivalences in higher math (as far as I know, these deal with infinities, such as with limits). However, in the case of 0/0, it is almost always undefined.

Thanks for the clarification Geezah. I hadn't thought of it in that way before - learn something new every day.

Oct 15 at 22:12

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If x divided by x equals 1 than does zero divided by zero equal 1?
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