Nullity - the Nonsense Number

Tons of folks have been writing to me this morning about the BBC story about an idiot math teacher who claims to have solved the problem of dividing by zero. This is an absolutely infuriating story, which does an excellent job of demonstrating what total innumerate idiots reporters are.

What this guy has done is invent a new number, which he calls "nullity". This number is not on the number line, can't be compared to other numbers by less than or greater than, etc. In other words, he's given a name to the basic mathematical concept of "undefined", and proclaimed that this is somehow a solution to a deep and important problem.

The thing is, there is no problem. We understand what division by zero means. You can't do it. There is no number that meaningfully expresses the concept of what it means to divide by zero.

Link

Og jeg som postet den BBC artikkelen tidligere.