Wednesday, 17 May 2017

algebra precalculus - Why is $frac{1}{frac{1}{0}}$ undefined?




Is the fraction



$$\frac{1}{\frac{1}{0}}$$



undefined?



I know that division by zero is usually prohibited, but since dividing a number by a fraction yields the same result as multiplying the number by the fraction's reciprocal, you could argue that



$$\frac{1}{\frac{1}{0}} = (1)\left(\frac{0}{1}\right) = 0$$




Is that manipulation permissible in this case? Why or why not?


Answer



Another way to think about this is order of operations:



$$
\frac{1}{\frac{1}{0}}=1/(1/0)
$$



I always compute what's inside the parenthesis first, which gives me undefined, and I have to stop there.



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