Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Zero divided by a negative or positive number is either zero or is expressed as a fraction with zero as numerator and the finite quantity as denominator. Zero divided by zero is zero. In 830, Mahāvīra unsuccessfully tried to correct the mistake Brahmagupta made in his book Ganita Sara Samgraha: "A number remains unchanged when divided by zero ...
In these enlarged number systems, division is the inverse operation to multiplication, that is a = c / b means a × b = c, as long as b is not zero. If b = 0, then this is a division by zero, which is not defined. [a] [4]: 246 In the 21-apples example, everyone would receive 5 apple and a quarter of an apple, thus avoiding any leftover.
For example, 10 is a multiple of 5 because 5 × 2 = 10, so 10 is divisible by 5 and 2. Because 10 is the smallest positive integer that is divisible by both 5 and 2, it is the least common multiple of 5 and 2. By the same principle, 10 is the least common multiple of −5 and −2 as well.
This operation is undefined in arithmetic, and therefore deductions based on division by zero can be contradictory. If we assume that a non-zero answer exists, when some number is divided by zero, then that would imply that =. But there is no number, which when multiplied by zero, produces a number that is not zero.
0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity.Adding (or subtracting) 0 to any number leaves that number unchanged; in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and complex numbers, as well as other algebraic structures.
In particular, division by zero is meaningful. The real numbers can be extended to a wheel, as can any commutative ring . The term wheel is inspired by the topological picture ⊙ {\displaystyle \odot } of the real projective line together with an extra point ⊥ ( bottom element ) such that ⊥ = 0 / 0 {\displaystyle \bot =0/0} .
(For example, two-fifths is the fraction 2 / 5 and two fifths is the same fraction understood as 2 instances of 1 / 5 .) Fractions should always be hyphenated when used as adjectives. Alternatively, a fraction may be described by reading it out as the numerator over the denominator, with the denominator expressed as a cardinal ...
An irreducible fraction (or fraction in lowest terms, simplest form or reduced fraction) is a fraction in which the numerator and denominator are integers that have no other common divisors than 1 (and −1, when negative numbers are considered). [1] In other words, a fraction a / b is irreducible if and only if a and b are coprime ...