Quote:
Quote by: 5010  According to Infinity (Wikipedia)
x/∞ = 0 (where x is a real number) but 0·∞ is indeterminate (except in some contexts). It also states that [x/∞ = 0] is not equivalent to [0·∞=x].
So is there an error in this wiki, or is there disagreement, or is it coming from a different context?
And could one say x/∞ = dx? The infinite slice is infinitessimal? |
In my AP Calculus class, infinity is ONLY used as a limit, like as X approaches infinity. So infinity, for the most part, is never used in the question, nor the answer; it is a concept. It's the assumption that when the graph you're working with, or the equation, or the statistic, or whatever, is moved to an increasing amount of values for x, a pattern occurs.
This pattern could be that as X approaches infinity, your Y value could keep decreasing to 0, or could be increasing forever with your X.
Basically, in calculus at least, infinity is used to define continuities and patterns between equations and their graphs.
As for the value of x/∞, this is the same as 1/∞ times x. As I said before, 1/∞ is not a specific number, but a concept, where we can assume that 1 divided by an increasing sum of numbers will keep approaching 0 forever and ever; so essentially, in math at least, we write it down as 0.
I hope that helps some.