34. A student says, \"It doesn\'t make any sense to me that when you divide a nu

Question

34. A student says, "It doesn't make any sense to me that when you divide a number like -10 into 200 you get 20 because that means when you divided a small number into an smaller even number you get a great big number." 35. A student says, "6 0 equals nothing. Since you are dividing by nothing, you get nothing as a result 36. You have explained that 0 0 is undefined because the value could have too many answers. A student asks, "Why can't we just define 0 0 to be equal to one and always use it that way?"

Explanation / Answer

Solution : ( 35 )

Now let's assume that ' 6/0 ' is possible. What would ' 6/0 ' be equal to ? Let's say that ' 6/0 = 0 ' (hypothetically of course)

6/0 = 0 Start with the faulty equation

6 = 0 * 0 Multiply both sides by ' 0 ' (ie move the zero in the denominator to the right side)

6 = 0 Multiply.

Since this equation is false, this means that ' 6/0 = 0 ' is NOT true.

In general, the equation ' 6/0 = x ' would become ' 6 = 0 * x ' which would inevitably simplify to ' 6 = 0 ' (which is again false).

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