Interesting Thoughts - Power of Shunya (Zero)

Our modern number system is heavily dependent on '0'. Thanks 👏👏 to Mr. Aryabhata for capturing the concept of 'shunya' or void, and suggesting the base of decimal number system.

"From place to place, each is ten times the preceding" - Aryabhatiya by Aryabhata

Different ancient Indian mathematician such as Brahmagupta and Bhaskara have tried to decode the '0' afterwards. 

What happens when we introduce '0' in any calculation? 

For addition and subtraction it has no impact, or we can say absolutely zero impact 😉

What happens in case of multiplication?

N x 0 = 0, basically repeating any number '0' times means nothing. 

 

The confusion starts with division. 

As per modern mathematics N/0 = Undefined. 

As per ancient Indian mathematician Bhaskara N/0 = ∞ (Infinite)

Let us try to do a simple calculation,

1/0.009 = 9000

1/0.0009=90000

1/0.00009 = 900000

And so on .....

So basically as the denominator is becoming smaller or getting closer to '0' the result is becoming bigger or getting closer to ∞ (Infinite).

Mathematically,     1/N   =   M

                               N→0      M→∞ 

Similarly, 

-1/0.009 = -9000

-1/0.0009=-90000

-1/0.00009 = -900000

And so on .....

So basically as the denominator is becoming smaller or getting closer to '0' the result is becoming bigger or getting closer to ∞ (Infinite).

Mathematically,     -1/N   =   -M

                               N→0      M→∞ 

Now, food for thought is N/0 = Undefined or Infinite 😯 ? And are there different infinites, like +∞ and  - ∞ ?

Reference: Numericon by Mariane Freiberger & Rachel Thomas