Message Boards Message Boards

0
|
5642 Views
|
2 Replies
|
0 Total Likes
View groups...
Share
Share this post:

Why does Wolfram|Alpha give the result 0 for 0/(0/0)?

Posted 5 years ago

I understand why this result is given for 1/(1/0) (1/0 equals ? in the Riemann sphere), but here I am talking about 0/(0/0).

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=0/%280/0%29

We could, of course, simply understand 0/0 as a number that multiplied by 0 is 0; every real number fulfills this definition, but even without making it any more specific, it would be clear that 0(1/(|0/0|?+?1)) is 0 because it is clear that 0(1/(|x|?+?1)) equals 0 for every x in the Riemann sphere. However, it still would not be clear that 0/(0/0) equals 0, since while 0 divided by any number except 0 is 0, it is not clear that 0/0 is 0. Wolfram|Alpha does give the result (undefined) for 0(0/0) (“$0\times\infty$” is an indeterminate form), but does not for 1^(0/0) (although “$1^?$” is an indeterminate form as well), 0^(0/0) (“$0^0$” is an indeterminate form) and 0/(0/0).

This also works using other indeterminate forms, e.g., 1^log(0, 0) (result: 1).

Is this intentional? The Wolfram Language, on the other hand, returns Indeterminate even for 0 (1/(Abs[0/0] + 1)).

POSTED BY: Ivan Panchenko
2 Replies
Posted 5 years ago

I get answer Indeterminate

POSTED BY: bogd timo
Posted 5 years ago

See for yourself (Wolfram|Alpha, not Wolfram Language!): https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=0%2F(0%2F0)

POSTED BY: Ivan Panchenko
Reply to this discussion
Community posts can be styled and formatted using the Markdown syntax.
Reply Preview
Attachments
Remove
or Discard

Group Abstract Group Abstract