Zero was invented independently in Mesopotamia, India, and by the Maya

Did you know zero has a secret twin?

Imagine you're dividing by a number that should be zero but isn't. What happens to your result?

In math, dividing by zero is a no-go. But computers have a workaround with negative and positive zero, treating them as different but equal.

Example

Dividing 5 by 0 in a computer gives you infinity, while dividing 5 by negative zero gives you negative infinity.

Remember this

Negative zero and positive zero are like mirror images of zero in the world of computers.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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