this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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    [–] Abnorc@lemm.ee 30 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    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.

    [–] affiliate@lemmy.world 12 points 6 months ago

    it is possible to rigorously say that 1/0 = ∞. this is commonly occurs in complex analysis when you look at things as being defined on the Riemann sphere instead of the complex plane. thinking of things as taking place on a sphere also helps to avoid the "positive"/"negative" problem: as |x| shrinks, 1 / |x| increases, so you eventually reach the top of the sphere, which is the point at infinity.

    [–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

    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 6 months ago (2 children)

    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).

    [–] ReveredOxygen@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 months ago

    It's undefined in math, but not floating point arithmetic