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Bro tried to divide by zero (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 5 months ago by 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works to c/linuxmemes@lemmy.world
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[-] Abnorc@lemm.ee 30 points 5 months ago

Almost. 1/x approaches infinity from the positive direction, but it approaches negative infinity from the negative direction. Since they approach different values, you can't even say the limit of 1/x is infinity. It's just undefined.

[-] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 5 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_by_zero#Floating-point_arithmetic

In IEEE arithmetic, division of 0/0 or ∞/∞ results in NaN, but otherwise division always produces a well-defined result. Dividing any non-zero number by positive zero (+0) results in an infinity of the same sign as the dividend. Dividing any non-zero number by negative zero (−0) results in an infinity of the opposite sign as the dividend. This definition preserves the sign of the result in case of arithmetic underflow.

[-] Bumblefumble@lemm.ee 0 points 5 months ago

10/0 ≠ lim x->0+ 10/x

Or in other words, the thing you keep quoting does not apply in this case. Any number divided by zero is undefined, not positive infinity (or negative infinity for that matter).

[-] bequirtle@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

but it does apply, because computers use IEEE arithmetic...

[-] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 5 months ago

To be fair, it turns out not all environments implement floating-point arithmetic by the IEEE spec, meaning division by 0 can produce different results depending on where you run it. So in C++ float division by zero is undefined: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42926763/the-behaviour-of-floating-point-division-by-zero

But I'm fairly sure (note: based on literally no research) that most environments today will behave like the IEEE spec.

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this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
466 points (97.7% liked)

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