Google's Calculator Has Stopped Dividing-By-Zero

On 26 January 2005, GDT sent an email message to Google requesting they change the way their calculator handled division-by-zero requests.

I received two auto-replies, but for the entire Spring 2005 semester the Google calculator said "something" divided by zero is zero.

On 28 July 2005, out of curiosity, GDT attempted to do 1 / 0 and Google did not do the arithmetic. Google did, however, calculate 1 / 0.0000000001.

Copy and paste from Google.com...

   1 / 0.0000000001 = 10 000 000 000

Email Messages To/From Google.com

   From gdt@deru.com Wed Jan 26 08:40:00 2005
   Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 08:36:58 -0700 (MST)
   From: Gerald D. Thurman 
   To: search-quality@google.com
   Subject: calculator: 1/0

   The Google Search calculator says 1/0 is 0.  I'd 
   like to see it give a warning about dividing by 
   zero similar to what the Unix 'dc' command prints.

   gdt@local: dc
   1
   0/p
   dc: divide by zero
   0

   Thank You.  May Google stay forever good.

   -- 
   Gerald D. Thurman [CS/CIS Instructor]
   Scottsdale Community College    
   http://deru.com/~gdt/


   **** Google sends an auto-reply. ****

   From help@google.com Wed Jan 26 08:39:49 2005
   Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 15:27:22 -0000
   From: help@google.com
   To: Gerald D. Thurman 
   Subject: Re: [#20109356] calculator: 1/0

   Thank you for writing to Google. This automated response is just to let
   you know that we've received your email, and you'll hear from us soon.

   Thank you for using Google.

   Regards,
   The Google Team


   **** Google sends another reply (auto or human?) ****

   From help@google.com Tue Feb  1 04:29:42 2005
   Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 12:36:36 -0800
   From: help@google.com
   To: Gerald D. Thurman 
   Subject: Re: [#20109356] calculator: 1/0

   Thank you for the suggestion. We have passed your message on to the
   appropriate team. We really appreciate your thoughtful feedback, and 
   we'll keep it in mind as we work to improve Google.

   Regards,
   The Google Team

Test Google

1. 1 / 10**2 [1 divided by 100]
2. 1 / 10**100 [1 divided by a googol]
3. 1 / (1 / googol) [1 divided by (1 divided by a googol)]
4. 1 / 0 [1 divided by 0]
5. -1 / 0 [-1 divided by 0]
6. googol / 0 [googol divided by 0]

Creator: Gerald D. Thurman [gdt@deru.com]
Created: 28 July 2005


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.