Question

What does `0.01/0 xx 100` equal?

Answer 1

There is no answer - dividing by 0 makes the entire expression undefined.

Explanation:

We have `0.01/0 xx 100`. What does it equal?

The problem we run into with this expression is the "divide by 0". Things can't be divided by 0.

Think of it this way - a fraction consists of two numbers - the numerator (which tells us the number of somethings, perhaps slices of pizza), and the denominator (which tells us the size of the somethings). For instance, the fraction `1/2` tells us that the pizza was sliced in 2 (that the 2 in the denominator) and we have 1 piece (that being the numerator).

We can then look at `1/1` - or I have an entire pizza to myself.

Or `2/1` - I have 2 whole pizzas.

I can write fractions like `sqrt(34)/71` and still express that I have some number of slices of pizza `sqrt(34)` that was cut into so many slices (for instance 71).

I can write `0/2` - or in other words I have no slices of a pizza that was sliced into 2 pieces.

But I can't make sense of a pizza sliced into 0 slices.

I can say something like `1/.1` which would mean that the 1 thing I have (the numerator) is actually a part (a tenth) of something bigger. The same with `1/.01` (so the 1 thing I have is a hundredth of something bigger), and so on. But there is no ability to do that when there are no slices.

And so we say that anything divided by 0 is undefined.