• Abnorc@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Almost. 1/x approaches infinity from the positive direction, but it approaches negative infinity from the negative direction. Since they approach different values, you can’t even say the limit of 1/x is infinity. It’s just undefined.

    • affiliate@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      it is possible to rigorously say that 1/0 = ∞. this is commonly occurs in complex analysis when you look at things as being defined on the Riemann sphere instead of the complex plane. thinking of things as taking place on a sphere also helps to avoid the “positive”/“negative” problem: as |x| shrinks, 1 / |x| increases, so you eventually reach the top of the sphere, which is the point at infinity.