[Sussex] Zero

[Derek Harding]

Can I add my few coppers worth?

Patishnik is, I was taught, correct as long as one is _not_ using algebraic notation and is the kind of "logic" that stops there being a year 0 between 1AD and 1BC - the zero point was just that, a point in time so brief as to have only theoretical existance.
> Well.. you're right, or half right, I have looked in two books now 
> and both have given me differrent answers Patashnik says that Zero 
> is _not_ an integer because you cannot divide another integer by it 
> and return an integer result. The Dictionary of Mathematics claims 
> Zero is an integer in algebraic maths.
> 
> As the third rule _was_  and algebraic equation I hereby conceed 
> that 1 is indeed, an odd number (in every sense of the word!).
Exactly - zero is essential in algebra in order for equations to possess equality (by definition). Imagine no quadratics! However, there is another argument that an integer divided by zero results in a number that is infinitely large but an infinitely large _integer_.

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Best wishes,
Derek