0 = infinity

[Nut4Dawgs]

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This must be wrong. The ball will stop bouncing eventually due to some energy being lost as heat due to friction (or by the 2nd law of thermodynamics).

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You know that. Even I know something of it.

His math equation never reached zero. The rebound was an infinite number. That was one of my early experiences with those "Lessons of Life You Don't Learn in Kindergarten."

Figures do not lie, but liars sure do know how to figure.

[soon2bepro]

0 is no more of a concept or less real than 1, 2 or any other number.

[lightw1thoutheat]

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There could be an argument made that any number DIVIDED by zero equals infinity.

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division is defined as the multiplicitave inverse. so if a/inf=0 this implies that 0*inf=a.

[ZeeJustin]

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give one example of something that is truly zero.

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There are zero apples in my hand. I have died zero times in my life. I own zero midget slave laborers. Etc.

[tomdemaine]

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[ QUOTE ]
give one example of something that is truly zero.

[/ QUOTE ]

There are zero apples in my hand. I have died zero times in my life. I own zero midget slave laborers. Etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's weird, I own infinity midget slave laborers.

[morphball]

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There are zero apples in my hand.

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Only if you have never eaten an apple and everything you have eaten never ate an apple.

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I have died zero times in my life.

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Not true, your body is composed of nearly (or more than) a trillion cells. They are dying everyday. As to your consciousness, it changes from day to day as well, so you can never be the person you were yesterday.

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I own zero midget slave laborers.

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You should really get some. They work hard, do not try to escape and are easy to maintain.

To your point, cool something down to zero degrees. Find me a volume of space that has zero mass. It's very easy to identify <u>one</u> variable and say "gee, I don't have any of that." But what you can't do, and what no one can do, is say there is absolutely nothing in my hand.

[SBR]

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I know this seems crazy, but I have seriously been thinking about this for a long time. The purpose of this post was simply to find out if there have been any academic debates or proofs of this. I was hoping that people here, whom I consider to be very informed, for the most part, would know of anything.

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You are right it does seem crazy. I'm not trying to make "fun" of you or anything stupid like that. I'm seriously confused as to how anyone could think they are equal or even comparable. The fact that you have put serious thought into this is fairly disconcerting. I will save you some time, there are not any valid proofs. There has never been any serious discussion about this and I very much doubt there ever will be.

I do respect that you, apparently, have some interest in mathematics and I hope you pursue this interest in the future. However I also hope that in the future you do a little research on your own before trying to engage discussion about a topic. Both wiki and mathworld are reasonable starting points.

[Bork]

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To your point, cool something down to zero degrees. Find me a volume of space that has zero mass. It's very easy to identify one variable and say "gee, I don't have any of that." But what you can't do, and what no one can do, is say there is absolutely nothing in my hand.


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You are pointing out a case in which you claim that your hand cannot be empty. Even if this claim is true it does not show that zero is not exemplified in nature. Further your case is wrong. I think its possible to have a hand that holds nothing. It would perhaps be physically problematic to remove all the stuff but it could be done. Also we don't need to relate this 'nothing' or zero space to a hand. We just need a tiny speck of pure space.

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Not true, your body is composed of nearly (or more than) a trillion cells. They are dying everyday.

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Some cells that compose you dying is not the same as you dying.

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There are zero apples in my hand.


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Only if you have never eaten an apple and everything you have eaten never ate an apple.

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No there are no apples currently in his hand. Further a speck of former apple material does not equal an apple.



He gave indisputable cases of the concept zero being exemplified. Pointing out different more broad cases where the statement would not be true is irrelevant.




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No, I am not suggesting that zero is not a number, but it is in one sense. Numbers, as most people think of them, are concepts. When we say 1 + 1 is 2, this is a concept because in the real world, we can never have two things that exactly equal 1. We will just get close.

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Infinity and zero are both concepts, but only zero is a number as well. For two concepts to be equal (identical) they must be the very some concept. So, since zero is both a number and a concept while infinity is a mere concept they are not the same concept, hence they are not equivalent.

[BrickTamlin]

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Numbers, as most people think of them, are concepts. When we say 1 + 1 is 2, this is a concept because in the real world, we can never have two things that exactly equal 1.

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So, it should be very easy to prove 1+1=3. Once you complete this simple prrof, then worry about 0=inf.

[purnell]

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0 is no more of a concept or less real than 1, 2 or any other number.

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Let's see you hold "two" in your hand, or put it in a box. All numbers are concepts- they exist only in our minds.