Thursday, August 17, 2006

Maths Problem: Funny

Q. You know that 1 + 0 = 1, 1 - 0 = 1, and 1 x 0 = 0. So what does 1/0 (1 divided by 0) equal? And a related question, when does Wayne Newton become the Pope?

A: Dividing by 0 would bring on the "nonsense" cops because in our mathematical system, this gives an answer that doesn't make sense, says Ithaca College's Aaron Weinberg. To see why, check out the following progression: 1 divided by 1 = 1; 1 divided by 1/2 = 2; 1 divided by 1/3 = 3 ... 1 divided by 1/100 = 100 ... 1 divided by 1/1000 = 1000 ... The smaller you make the divisor, the bigger the answer becomes, until as you approach 0, it grows too enormous to even write on the page. Try to divide by 0 itself and the answer becomes infinity, which if treated like an ordinary number leads to some mighty strange things.

How strange? If 1/0 equals infinity, then so does 2/0. Which means 1/0 = 2/0, and since the denominators here are the same, you can conclude that 1 = 2. It gets better, says Weinberg. "We know that Wayne Newton is 1 person. The Pope is also 1 person, so together they're 2 people. But since 2 = 1, this also means that Wayne Newton and the Pope are 1 person, so Wayne Newton must be the Pope!"

Courtesy of Richmond.com

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