When x is 0 for the equation y=10/x, y is obviously 0. How can i explain why this happens in words? and i know that division is finding how many times one number is contained in another. Is it 10 goes into 0, 0 times or 0 goes into 10, 10 times?

When x is 0 for the equation y = 10/x, y is NOT 0.

It is infinity.

0 goes into 10 an infinite number of itmes. Nothing gets taken away.

oh infinity?

or is it undefined?

Same thing. Math teachers like to say "undefined".

Graph the function and you will see what happens when x approaches zero. It (10/x) goes "off the page" and approaches infinity

oh i see!

thank you very much

To explain why y is 0 when x is 0 in the equation y = 10/x, we can understand it in terms of division and how it relates to the formula. When we divide a number by another number, we are essentially finding how many times the second number is contained within the first number.

In this equation, we have y = 10/x. When x is 0, it means we are dividing 10 by 0. However, the concept of dividing by 0 is undefined in mathematics. This is because if we were to divide any number by 0, we would be essentially trying to find out how many times 0 fits into that number, which is impossible.

Therefore, when x is 0 in the equation y = 10/x, we cannot proceed with the division, resulting in an undefined value for y. In other words, there is no meaningful answer or viable solution to this equation when x is 0.

To summarize, when x is 0 in the equation y = 10/x, y is undefined or 0 cannot go into 10 any number of times.