in reply to Why is Zero not 0?

Why is Zero not 0?

Just to stimulate some hypothetical B.S.'ing..... the "zero not being zero" problem is not just a programming problem. Math and Philosophy cannot find an exact zero either. All you can do is get closer to it, approaching from the positive or negative side. They use terms like "-0" or "0+" to signify approaching zero at infinite minuteness, from either the negative or positive side.

Something to think about when you are high ( er... I mean meditating ;-) ).

I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum

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Re^2: Why is Zero not 0?
by jluther (Novice) on Feb 04, 2008 at 16:00 UTC
    Lol. Well, I believe that mathematically there is a zero just like there is a God.
[reply]
      In integer math, there is an exact zero; but in the real world there isn't an exact anything..... only degrees of precision. When I was in engineering, 5 decimal places of accuracy was considered pretty good; but my space alien friends wouldn't touch anything with such sloppy tolerances. :-)
      I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum
[reply]
        I checked out another node referenced in the post replies about -0.00. Oh my!!!! This is just getting to me. Integer math or not. Philosophically or mathematically I understand where you're coming from ... but logically it doesn't make sense. By having negative zero what you have is that the following statement is not truly factual

        if($x==0){print "I'm ZERO!\n");

        $x could come in as -0.00 or -9.049848394839e-14. We now have problems if your referring to say dollars and cents. I hear what you are saying ... I guess it is what it is.:o(

[reply]

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