Introduction to division by 0

Part 1

Students should know that division is the act of putting things into equal groups. For example, if I have 18 cookies, and I want to give 6 to my friends, I will end up giving 6 cookies away to 3 of my friends. If I divide 18 by 6 I will end up with 6 equal groups of 3. However, a serious problem arises when we try and divide by 0. How could you possibly split 18 cookies into 0 groups? Since 18 cookies are already one group of cookies, it seems as though we would have to eat all of the cookies to have 0 groups. However, we must split them into groups and we cannot subtract or eat them. It does not take long before you figure out that it is impossible to divide by zero. Dividing by zero breaks every rule of math, and it is forbidden to do so in math. Mathematicians have a term for numbers that have been divided by zero: "undefined". When we define something, we show that it has a meaning. So, undefined simply means that the number has no meaning. Any undefined number should simply be called undefined, but you should avoid dividing by 0 into math problems at all costs.

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