At 11:08 AM 2/16/99 -0800, Eric Ruud wrote:
>>IAN: I only see two of those applying to
>>what John said, but I think he's indicated
>>that he sees the answer as more like 1/0
>>than zero, and if so, his statement should
>>be clarified as "The answer is indeterminate."
>
>
>It seems (if my logic is working correctly this morning) that the term 1/0
>would not only denote an indeterminate answer, but that answer would be
>indeterminate because there are no choices.
>
>In this sense, it would be more appropriate for this "God equation" to be
>0/0, because there can be no choice if there are no choices.
>
>I have to side with Ian, however, considering that we've created choices,
>and therefore there ARE choices.
A dejanews search of forum alt.math will find a few threads on the topic, and the prevailing view of mathematicians there is that 0/0 can be shown via several routs to equal any number. However, obviously this leads to fatal contradictions that render 0/0 "indeterminate." Here's a way I figured out for arguing why 0/0 = n, and the subsequent fatal contradiction: