Why can't one divide by 0?

Answer 1

Short answer: because the entire number system would fall to pieces.

Explanation:

Remember that if you divide by a number: x/y=z

then you must be able to multiply the divisor across: x=z*y

If you divide by 0 then it would be: x/0=z

and multiply the 0 to the other side: x=z*0

anything time 0 = 0 so: x=0

but what if you do 2=0?

Then you have:

2/0=z

2=z*0

2=0

Obviously 2 cannot actually be equal to 0 so you can't do that. As for dividing 0/0 the reason is because anything divided by itself must equal 1: x/x=1

but if we could divide by zero then it would result in zero, so 0/0=1 AND 0/0=0 since it can't be both you can't do that.