History Main / DivideByZero

To divide a number by zero is the one thing elementary math teachers tell you that you [[LiesToChildren simply cannot do]] (but as usual, Real Life is more complicated than elementary school; see the Trivia section above). It led to a joke on {{image board}}s (actually, the meme is [[OlderThanTheyThink much older than that]]) that if someone were to divide a number by zero, it would break reality. Someone making a suggestion that is severely unlikely is often compared to this. When TimeTravel is involved, usually results in a TimeCrash (and a FateWorseThanDeath for all involved). An EldritchAbomination is something whose very nature is ''continuous division by zero itself''.

* The Limit of Questions is a metaphysical concept at play in the world of ''EurekaSeven'' that essentially sets a limit on the number of sentient lifeforms that can exist in a given space. If the Limit of Questions is exceeded, the fabric of reality starts to break down. [[spoiler:Colonel Dewey's goal with the Ageha Project is actually to ''deliberately'' exceed the Limit of Questions by awakening the scub coral, an enormous mass of a colonial alien life form that covers the planet and, as it turns out, is sentient. At one point in history, the scub by itself exceeded the Limit of Questions, but managed to fix things by going into a state of deep hibernation -- but not before a section of the planet was irrevocably screwed up, resulting in a chaotic region known as the Great Wall.]]

* The climax of the first season of ''ShakuganNoShana'' had the villains exploiting a loophole with the ClingyMacGuffin inside the main character that fueled his existence; by [[{{Synchronization}} synchronizing]] with a character with an (implied) infinite capacity for Existence, the MacGuffin would generate infinite existence. It was implied that reality itself would blow up/collapse (yes, simultaneously) if this had been allowed to continue.

** [[spoiler:The second time she used it, she got a different effect -- it summoned the Lord of Nightmares, who decided to just destroy the guy dicking around with the spell instead of destroying the world. And then got ''really'' merciful and decided to not kill Lina after all.]]
* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', this is what the Anti-Spirals feared: with the Spiral beings' endless quest for the will to power, they will transmute so much mass that the universe collapses in a black hole called the Spiral Nemesis. There's also another example from TheMovie, Lagann-hen. [[spoiler:If collapsing a pocket universe with a [[BeamOWar drill power struggle]] isn't dividing by zero, then I am doing it wrong.]]

* In ''TheEndOfEvangelion'', this is what happens when two all-powerful Eldritch Abominations, Adam and Lilith, are combined with each other. One of the BridgeBunnies says something along the lines of (I forget exactly) "Their energy levels are converging on an infinite zero." when the Adam / Lilith merger begins to break the universe. [[GainaxEnding That would make a lot of sense actually.]]

*** Alternate explanation: crossing the streams actually did result in as horrible an affect as Egon first explained. The reason the gate closed was because ''the other universe ceased to exist''.

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': Using an [[NeglectfulPrecursors Ancient Project]] to create a super-energy source, [[InsufferableGenius Doctor Rodney Mckay]] accidentally makes particles that defy the laws of physics. The result? He [[NeverLiveitDown repeatedly gets called out]] for [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun destroying an entire solar system]]!
** [[InsistentTerminology Fixe sixths]] [[RunningGag of a solar system, actually.]]

** HilariousInHindsight as VH1 actually ended up doing an ''I Love'' series on the 00's, entitled ''I Love The New Millenium'', which both was done in 2008, before the decade ended, and in which the commentators discussed many of those same subjects.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' actually has the ''hero'' do this. '''On purpose'''. Well, it's one way to get warmongers to realize that they're playing with fire...

* While it doesn't actually take place in ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', some dialog plays with it.

* In Einstein's equations for the theory of General Relativity, there is actually one point in which, for certain situations, you would have to divide by 0. Most probably both the TropeNamer and TropeCreator, as the result of it is the equation that describes Black Holes.
** Technically speaking, this doesn't mean that physics actually divides by zero in a black hole. When physics equations result in divisions by zero, it's a cue to physicists that there is a problem in the theory. In this case, it's because the current standard theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics don't play well together - which means that one or both of these current theories must be wrong. The fact that we know this doesn't cause practical problems: in practice, we can use either one or the other, because relativity only matters when massive objects are involved and quantum mechanics only matters on very small scales, but in the rare circumstances where there are supermassive objects on tiny scales (i.e. the core of a black hole or the beginning of the universe) we start to run into the limitations of the standard model. (There are numerous alternate theories which do resolve these paradoxes, though)

* Division by zero is ''theoretically'' possible in the higher maths, but is limited in actuality by the inability to define infitiy as a quantity. Technically speaking x/0 equals infinity, but because infinity is well... [[ShapedLikeItself infinite]], it can't be set equal to anything and so division by zero is impossible. One can say, however, that as x ''approaches'' zero, the equation approaches infinity.

* In the FiresignTheatre's album ''Eat Or Be Eaten'', a gamer tries to go to band 100 of a 99 band disk, and is sucked into the game.

* VideoGame/TheElderScrolls calls such events "Dragon Breaks", where the god of time, known by many names and guises, but most prominently as a dragon god "Akatosh", is tampered with.

** The Scrolls themselves can cause a mild version of this depending on who reads them. Someone who is completely untrained in the history and nature of the Scrolls just sees the page picture for the main ''VideoGame/TheElderScrolls'' page. Someone with slight training is struck blind immediately. People with great training (e.g. members of the Cult of the Ancestor Moth in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'') gradually go blind as they read more of the scrolls. Then we have the Dovahkiin in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''. Dragonborn are mortals with the soul of a dragon, and [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons exist outside of time]]. Reading the Scroll you obtain as part of ''Skyrim's'' main quest results in being momentarily blinded, then recovering. It's like the universe needed to reboot or something...

** The Scrolls themselves can cause a mild version of this depending on who reads them. Someone who is completely untrained in the history and nature of the Scrolls just sees the page picture for the main ''VideoGame/TheElderScrolls'' page. Someone with slight training is struck blind immediately. People with great training (e.g. members of the Cult of the Ancestor Moth in ''{{Oblivion}}'') gradually go blind as they read more of the scrolls. Then we have the Dovahkiin in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''. Dragonborn are mortals with the soul of a dragon, and [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons exist outside of time]]. Reading the Scroll you obtain as part of ''Skyrim's'' main quest results in being momentarily blinded, then recovering. It's like the universe needed to reboot or something...

** The Scrolls themselves can cause a mild version of this depending on who reads them. Someone who is completely untrained in the history and nature of the Scrolls just sees the page picture for the main ''VideoGame/TheElderScrolls'' page. Someone with slight training is struck blind immediately. People with great training (e.g. members of the Cult of the Ancestor Moth in ''{{Oblivion}}'') gradually go blind as they read more of the scrolls. Then we have the Dovahkiin in ''{{Skyrim}}''. Dragonborn are mortals with the soul of a dragon, and [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons exist outside of time]]. Reading the Scroll you obtain as part of ''Skyrim's'' main quest results in being momentarily blinded, then recovering. It's like the universe needed to reboot or something...

* On the subject of ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures'', ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' has the truly catastrophic consequences of prototyping a sprite with another sprite.

* In ''Discworld/Mort'', when Mort [[spoiler:prevents the Princess Kelli's destined death]], he causes a ScrewDestiny and fears he has invoked this trope upon Reality itself.

[[quoteright:250:[[MemeticMutation http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dividebyzero.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[OhCrap OH]] [[CurseCutShort SHI-]]]]

* Series/StargateAtlantis: Using an [[NeglectfulPrecursors Ancient Project]] to create a super-energy source, [[InsufferableGenius Doctor Rodney Mckay]] accidentally makes particles that defy the laws of physics. The result? He [[NeverLiveitDown repeatedly gets called out]] for [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun destroying an entire solar system]]!

* ''{{Series/Babylon 5}}'' presents us with a strategy briefly toyed with by the Earth Alliance known as the [[TooDumbToLive Bonehead Maneuver]][[hottip:*:[[RubberForeheadAliens No offense intended towards the Minbari]], where a ship would open a jump point inside of an active jump gate. This resulted in a massive explosion that simply proved to be too powerful and fast for the ship in question to escape. Any ship big enough to create its own jump gates tended to be too slow for this to work, until the ''White Star'' came along, after which the strategy was still too risky to try more than once.

* Division by zero is [i]theoretically[/i] possible in the higher maths, but is limited in actuality by the inability to define infitiy as a quantity. Technically speaking x/0 equals infinity, but because infinity is well... [[ShapedLikeItself infinite]], it can't be set equal to anything and so division by zero is impossible.

* Tom Paris broke the transwarp barrier on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'''s "Threshold", thereby achieving the fabled Warp 10, or infinite velocity. Impressive! A pity the episode was [[CanonDiscontinuity erased from canon]] (with good reason).

* Tom Paris broke the transwarp barrier on ''StarTrekVoyager'''s "Threshold", thereby achieving the fabled Warp 10, or infinite velocity. Impressive! A pity the episode was [[CanonDiscontinuity erased from canon]] (with good reason).

* In ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'', [[spoiler:to save Sakura's life, Syaoran]] broke the magical taboo of stopping a moment in time. The unraveling of the fabric of reality ensues.
** Later however, this actually is revealed to be part of a StableTimeLoop responsible for his very existence.
** Actually the real cause was Clow's momentary PowerIncontinence when he didn't want Yuuko to die, so he essentially told reality to ''ignore her death'' and act as if she was still alive.

* Tom Paris broke the light-speed barrier on ''StarTrekVoyager'''s "Threshold", thereby achieving the fabled Warp 9. Impressive! A pity the episode was [[CanonDiscontinuity erased from canon]] (with good reason).

* Tom Paris broke the light-speed barrier on ''StarTrekVoyager'''s "Threshold", therby achieving the fabled Warp 9. Impressive! A pity the episode was [[CanonDiscontinuity erased from canon]] (with good reason).

* The climax of the first season of ''ShakuganNoShana'' had the villains exploiting a loophole with the ClingyMacGuffin inside the main character that fueled his existence; by [[{{Syncronization}} syncronizing]] with a character with an (implied) infinite capacity for Existence, the MacGuffin would generate infinite existence. It was implied that reality itself would blow up/collapse (yes, simultaneously) if this had been allowed to continue.

* The climax of the first season of ''ShakuganNoShana'' had the villains exploiting a loophole with the ClingyMacGuffin inside the main character that fueled his existence; so they overclocked it; flooding the town with Existence. It was implied that reality itself would blow up if this had been allowed to continue.

* In ''TheDragonDoctors'', this caused the most recent collapse of civilization. We're not clear on the mechanics, but someone went back in time, killed herself, and left a ghost, causing something that didn't quite exist and mauled reality by its presence alone.

* And of course, ''[[OneOverZero 1/0]]''.

* One episode of TheAmazingWorldOfGumball reveals that this is the ultimate result of [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous Gumball's father getting a job]]. [[StatusQuoIsGod Naturally, the cast has to get him fired]].

* In ''RealLifeComics'', Greg Dean parodies the possibilities of rune combinations in ''{{Diablo}} II'' [[http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/010709.html in this strip]] by making a sword with a 10% chance of annihilating the space-time continuum.