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Wolfram|Alpha shouldn't assume $x\neq 0$. It shouldn't claim $0/x=0$.

Posted 10 years ago

When you input 0/x on W|A, it claims, with no restrictions on $x$, that $0/x=0$. While of course it claims $0/0$ is indeterminate.

I'd like it to be more rigorous in this regard. It is typical for W|A to assume an unspecified letter $x$ is a complex variable. In this case, as always, it should assume $x$ is any complex variable, but it assumes $x\neq 0$, without pointing out the assumption. I'm honestly bothered by this.

POSTED BY: Ethan Wilson
2 Replies

The Generic and Non-Generic Cases tutorial in the Wolfram Language documentation center explains the motivation for this behavior.

POSTED BY: Ilian Gachevski

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POSTED BY: Simon Cadrin
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