Well, today's topic is 'nothing'. That doesn't mean, there is no topic. "Nothing" itself is the topic.
OK, I know that is quiet muddling, but believe me, this thing needs your attention.
This thought of 'nothingness' astonished me when I was wondering about the value of 'zero factorial', which is said to be 'one'.
Let's first get acquainted with the idea of 'Factorial':
If I have 4 balls (Green, Blue, Red, Yellow) and 1 dog (Cody) and I instruct Cody to bring all the balls, one by one. At first trip, Cody has 4 choices (Green, Blue, Red, Yellow). Let's assume, it brings 'Red' one first. At the second trip only 3 choices are left (Green, Blue, Yellow) and Cody grabs the Yellow one. Similarly, at the third trip only Green and Blue are there and it grabs the Blue one. Finally, with no choice left Cody gets the Green one.
So the order in which Cody brings the balls is: Red, Yellow, Blue, Green.
But how many, orders in which Cody gets the balls, are there??
It is quiet simple - 4 choices at first, then 3 choices, then 2 and lastly one.
Therefore the total number of cases are 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 4 factorial = 4 ! = 24. ( I hope you get that, otherwise you can always trouble your school teachers).
* '!' stands for factorial.
Let's say if there is only one ball. Then??
You are right...Only one case. And 1 factorial = 1! = 1.
Here comes the twist, there are no balls.
Now what ?? What are the number of orders in which the dog gets the balls.
Mathematically it's 0!, which is said to be 1.
Now what is this one case. This one case is the case of Cody coming back to me in a confused state, while wagging his tail, when it finds no balls over there. The case of getting no ball is itself a case.
When I came to realize this, it caused a paradigm shift in me.
Zero value or 'nothing' is an instance of an entity with zero magnitude
but when an entity is not having any magnitude (not even zero ), then this itself is an instance of that entity having an uncertain magnitude or no instance at all. This can be termed as NULL.
We can say that in the equation 0! = 1, the '1' is not representing the magnitude, it is representing the presence of an instance with no magnitude.
OK, I know that is quiet muddling, but believe me, this thing needs your attention.
This thought of 'nothingness' astonished me when I was wondering about the value of 'zero factorial', which is said to be 'one'.
Let's first get acquainted with the idea of 'Factorial':
If I have 4 balls (Green, Blue, Red, Yellow) and 1 dog (Cody) and I instruct Cody to bring all the balls, one by one. At first trip, Cody has 4 choices (Green, Blue, Red, Yellow). Let's assume, it brings 'Red' one first. At the second trip only 3 choices are left (Green, Blue, Yellow) and Cody grabs the Yellow one. Similarly, at the third trip only Green and Blue are there and it grabs the Blue one. Finally, with no choice left Cody gets the Green one.
So the order in which Cody brings the balls is: Red, Yellow, Blue, Green.
But how many, orders in which Cody gets the balls, are there??
It is quiet simple - 4 choices at first, then 3 choices, then 2 and lastly one.
Therefore the total number of cases are 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 4 factorial = 4 ! = 24. ( I hope you get that, otherwise you can always trouble your school teachers).
* '!' stands for factorial.
Let's say if there is only one ball. Then??
You are right...Only one case. And 1 factorial = 1! = 1.
Here comes the twist, there are no balls.
Now what ?? What are the number of orders in which the dog gets the balls.
Mathematically it's 0!, which is said to be 1.
Now what is this one case. This one case is the case of Cody coming back to me in a confused state, while wagging his tail, when it finds no balls over there. The case of getting no ball is itself a case.
When I came to realize this, it caused a paradigm shift in me.
Zero value or 'nothing' is an instance of an entity with zero magnitude
but when an entity is not having any magnitude (not even zero ), then this itself is an instance of that entity having an uncertain magnitude or no instance at all. This can be termed as NULL.
We can say that in the equation 0! = 1, the '1' is not representing the magnitude, it is representing the presence of an instance with no magnitude.
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