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Professor Comes Up With a Way to Divide by Zero

Posted by samzenpus on from the it-seems-so-obvious-now dept.

54mc writes "The BBC reports that Dr. James Anderson, of the University of Reading, has finally conquered the problem of dividing by zero. His new number, which he calls "nullity" solves the 1200 year old problem that niether Newton nor Pythagoras could solve, the problem of zero to the zero power. Story features video (Real Player only) of Dr. Anderson explaining the "simple" concept."

3 of 1,090 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Imaginary Numbers by Alchemist253 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Uh... are you joking?

    Imaginary numbers (specifically, complex numbers, which consist of a sum of a real and an imaginary number, and which comprise the "complex plane") are INCREDIBLY important in the "real world."

    I'm just a chemist, not a mathematician, but I am well aware that imaginary numbers are critical in the Fourier transforms used every time I take an IR or NMR spectrum.

    Ever do electrical engineering? Circuit analysis is made a great deal easier when you can treat circuit elements in terms of complex numbers. All that "impedance" stuff you hear about capacitors and the like that makes it possible to apply Ohm's Law to LRC circuits.

    These also are not merely made up properties, they are fundamental to mathematics and thus (if one believes that math is the language of the universe) physics. For example, certain integrals necessarily yield imaginary results. These integrals are not of some ethereal interest, but appear throughout quantum mechanics. This is why the amplitude of a wavefunction (used, for example, in molecular modeling that allows for practical achievements like better medicines) is not the square of the wave function (or, for that matter, its absolute value) but the product of the wavefunction and ITS COMPLEX CONJUGATE.

    If you'd like more examples of the utility of complex numbers and other "random rules," check out Boas' "Mathematical Methods In The Physical Sciences."

  2. Dr. James Anderson's actual papers by Bananatree3 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here's the dear professor's blog entry on this very topic, which links to two papers (ONLY for the mathematically inclined):

    The first paper he describes as:

    describes how to divide by zero consistently in a non-trivial way. This shows that division by zero is no longer an error. Amongst other things, the paper explains why the standard model of arithmetic is not valid.


    The second paper he says:


    explains how to extend calculus so that it works with transreal numbers. This paper disposes of various counter "proofs" that attempt to show that division by zero is impossible. The paper ends with a very simple equation demonstrating the possibility of division by zero and challenges the reader to accept it.

  3. Re:Argh!!! by 3rd_Floo · · Score: 5, Informative
    Computers can't deal with imaginary numbers natively...
    Uhh, they sure can. GNU C, for instance, has a complex qualifier.

    I think the GP was refering to the hardware level, not an abstract software layer. Where traditonal computers, even those with modern math extensions dont know what an imaginary or complex number is. Normally, two floating point values are used to represent complex arithmetic, however its not a native operation, and still requires some software logic to be accomplished.