Skip to content

Welcome Sites Tools Teacher guide Help
  You are not logged in Join

Log in

Getting below zero

Created by Lilz   -   Created: 28-05-04   -   Modified: 28-05-04




This graph shows the outcomes of dividing 1,000,000 by certain numbers. The blue line (series 1) shows the outcomes when dividing 1,000,000 by 3. At the beggining the graph is more steep but towards the end it gets less steep. I have found out that when dividing any number by 3, the outcomes will never be below zero. The purple line (series 2) shows the outcomes when dividing 1,000,000 by 300. At the beggining the graph is more steep but again, towards the end it gets less steep. By looking at this graph I have come to the conclusion, when dividing any number by 300, the outcomes will never be below zero. When I divided 1,000,000 by 300 the graph was much steeper than when I divided by 3, this is because the terms are decreasing more quickly by a larger number. When dividing by 3 the graph is not so steep as it is decreasing by a smaller number, therefore there are less terms in a set amount of space (on a graph). The terms never go below zero beacuse when you divide a positive number by a positive number, the outcom is always positive and a number below zero is negative, so this is not possible.


I was set a task to find out if I could get a number below zero by dividing. I tried out different things and this one worked. I decided to do this because I already knew that if one divides a positive number by a negative number the outcome is always negative. In this graph I divided 1,000,000 by -3. As you can see the graph is in a shape of a zig zag, this is because at first you're dividing a positive by a negative - which gives a negative outcome. Then you're dividing a negative by a negative - which gives a positive outcome. It goes round in circles positive, negative, positive, negative etc. The graph is more steep at the begginig and the line is spread over more figures and takes up more space on the graph but towards the end the graph becomes less steep and gradually moves towards zero. I can say that if you divide by any negative number the outcome will be negative.





Comment

Discussion icon What if...

Posted by: choyles at 03-06-04

Dear Lily

This is really nice. But the graphs look like straight lines after a while.

Can you do something about that as I dont think they are!!