User:TheKnightOfOyashiro

Hallo, ich heiße Yuri.

My current avatar is a stoic-looking Haruhi Suzumiya. I edited the image a lot, to make her look like Jesus.

A (relatively) simple explanation as to why you canot divide by ZERO
It is common knowledge that dividing by "zero" creates an error on most calculators. This has become a massive, long-running internet meme -- but there is a relatively simple why it is not possible to divide by "zero".

All numbers and equations can be translated into a graph -- adding or subtracting from "x", the variable key for most graphing calculators, shifts the line which traces the points each equation effectively creates. Multiplication and usually division cause the graph to become more or less steep. Exponents usually add curvature to the graph.

So the key is, Y = X for a simple 1/1 graph, Y = X + or - Z for a shifted graph, Y = X * or / Z for a graph of different inclination (division causes it to be shallower, multiplication causes it to be steeper), and Y = XZ (or X(W/Z), though it isn't a parabola it adds curvature to the graph) for a simple parabola (curved line). There are many variations of these equations, but these are the simplest.

Now, there's another simple equation which most school-children are taught in algebra -- M = rise/run. Linear equations have "Y = MX + B". Now think, if M = rise/run, then what is divided by zero is ultimately a straight-up and down line: the rise can be anything, but if it doesn't have any "run" to it, then it's going straight up -- as such, it reaches all the way to infinity. Now why does this create an error on non-graph parts of a calculator? Because the answer to anything divided by zero -- is infinite. "Undefined", the way I was taught it. If you try and solve for "Y = MX + B", and the "M" contains a number divided by zero, then it is going directly up, to infinity. If it were (5/0)4, where B is replaced by 0 (no shift) and X is replaced by "4", then solving for "Y". For the sake of simplicity: (1/2)4 (as opposed to 5/0) is where "Y" = 2, because "4" is the X amount where you can get -- determined by the "run" part of the M equation. you move to the right twice, up one, right twice, up once, stop. You've hit the desired "X" coordinate. The "Y" coordinate is revealed to be "2".

By contrast, 5/0. The "X" can't exist because the "Run" part of the equation is 0. Since you can't move either direction with a "0", you can't reach the specified "X" location, and because of that, you keep rising and rising, but will never be capable of reaching your desired "X". Hence, you get an error - the 0 will cause the calculator to keep piling up numbers for "Y", but because the "X" remains at zero at all times, it won't stop because it is not possible to reach the desired "X" number.

In summary, you can't divide by zero because it is like an asymptote, but worse. Unlike an asymptote, you're never getting close to the desired "X", but will continue piling on "Y" coordinates until the end of time.