,
,
,
,
or even expressions of those terms combined as if that would make them defined. I have made this post to answer these questions once and for all, and I politely ask everyone to link this post to threads that are talking about this issue.
,
isn't even rigorously defined in this expression. What exactly do we mean by 
.
,
does not exist in the first place, although you will see why in a calculus course. So the point is that 
?
indeterminate? In analysis (the theory behind calculus and beyond), limits involving an algebraic combination of functions in an independent variable may often be evaluated by replacing these functions by their limits. However, if the expression obtained after this substitution does not provide sufficient information to determine the original limit, then the expression is called an indeterminate form. For example, we could say that 
,
or ![\[0/0, \infty/\infty, \infty-\infty, \infty \times 0\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/2/6/0/260f97a1cf1ea8722ff97a29b83bac7bfe83e577.png)
etc etc. So what makes something undefined? In the broader scope, something being undefined refers to an expression which is not assigned an interpretation or a value. A function is said to be undefined for points outside its domain. For example, the function 
given by the mapping 
is undefined for 
.
is undefined because dividing by ![\[\overline{\mathbb{R}}=\mathbb{R}\cup \{-\infty,+\infty\}.\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/9/9/3/993c78b62ec2c84b5d77daa8e9a8cd6f70fcf904.png)
So instead of treating infinity as an idea, we define infinity (positively and negatively, mind you) as actual numbers in the reals. The advantage of doing this is for two reasons. The first is because we can turn this thing into a totally ordered set. Specifically, we can let 
for each 
which means that via this order topology each subset has an infimum and supremum and 
is therefore compact. While this is nice from an analytic standpoint, extending the reals in this way can allow for interesting arithmetic! In ![\begin{align*}
a + \infty = \infty + a & = \infty, & a & \neq -\infty \\
a - \infty = -\infty + a & = -\infty, & a & \neq \infty \\
a \cdot (\pm\infty) = \pm\infty \cdot a & = \pm\infty, & a & \in (0, +\infty] \\
a \cdot (\pm\infty) = \pm\infty \cdot a & = \mp\infty, & a & \in [-\infty, 0) \\
\frac{a}{\pm\infty} & = 0, & a & \in \mathbb{R} \\
\frac{\pm\infty}{a} & = \pm\infty, & a & \in (0, +\infty) \\
\frac{\pm\infty}{a} & = \mp\infty, & a & \in (-\infty, 0).
\end{align*}](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/6/d/8/6d8fc1eca5c791d430a7168cd3b37a02104fa318.png)
So addition, multiplication, and division are all defined nicely. However, notice that we have some indeterminate forms here which are also undefined,![\[\infty-\infty,\frac{\pm\infty}{\pm\infty},\frac{\pm\infty}{0},0\cdot \pm\infty.\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/a/0/b/a0b67076efcc014c78b2023be1151c84b57c1503.png)
So while we define certain things, we also left others undefined/indeterminate in the process! However, in the context of measure theory it is common to define 
as greenturtle3141 noted below. I encourage to reread what he wrote, it's great stuff! As you may notice, though, dividing by ![\[\mathbb{C}^*=\mathbb{C}\cup\{\tilde{\infty}\}\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/8/4/e/84ed3d6ab237df970333b87beaef5311caa46185.png)
which we call the Riemann Sphere (it actually forms a sphere, pretty cool right?). As a note, 
means complex infinity, since we are in the complex plane now. Here's the catch: division by ![\[\frac{z}{0}=\tilde{\infty},\frac{z}{\tilde{\infty}}=0.\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/1/6/0/160cb939707708ff4e0930724df2928af11d7fd1.png)
where 
and 
Furthermore, we actually have some nice properties with multiplication that we didn't have before. In 
it holds that![\[\tilde{\infty}\times \tilde{\infty}=\tilde{\infty}\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/8/e/0/8e035b4841d20c5ad671c46355cc667ca01e533b.png)
but 
and 
are left as undefined (unless there is an explicit need to change that somehow). One could define the projectively extended reals as we did with ![\[{\widehat {\mathbb {R} }}=\mathbb {R} \cup \{\infty \}.\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/c/0/4/c044ff37849acad3b8b280b9753539225a1276ca.png)
They behave in a similar way to the Riemann Sphere, with division by 
be a positive integer. Find all real solutions 
to the system:![\[a_1^2 + a_1 - 1 = a_2\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/a/4/e/a4e26b83c929b82800576bac11e12de0c3aa1cf6.png)
![\[ a_2^2 + a_2 - 1 = a_3\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/9/9/5/995e8eec93828b82901b0639463f907f5ff95d08.png)
![\[\hspace*{3.3em} \vdots \]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/e/e/1/ee15e1fefe2ad550d3c9b1c51207eaf66fbfa41f.png)
![\[a_{n}^2 + a_n - 1 = a_1\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/7/c/7/7c727d1f2044c1bf7c80981e1074bb3cde807b8f.png)
and 
are the feet of the altitudes through 
and 
respectively. The incenters of the triangles 
and 
are 
and 
respectively; the circumcenters of the triangles 
and 
are 
and 
respectively. Prove that 
and 
are parallel.
with 
prime and ![\[a^p+b^p=p!.\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/f/e/b/feb27894b1f6497559eeb094cfe92256bc26688e.png)
such that 
.
and 
intersect at the point 
.
?
,
.
are chosen from 0 to 1. What is the probability that their positive difference is more than 
?
?
families, there are 
children respectively. If a random child from any of the families is chosen, what is the probability that the child has 
siblings? Express your answer as a common fraction.[/quote]
,
people, exactly 
such that 
.
,
lies on diagonal 
such that 
.
.
has 
,
,
.
.
liters of milk. Then, 
liters are removed from the container and replaced with 
and 
is a drain pipe of a tank. Pipe 
and 
minutes to fill the remaining tank. If Pipe 
Y by
Let 
be a triangle whose incircle is tangent to 
, 
, 
at 
, respectively. Let 
and 
be the midpoints of 
and 
, respectively. Suppose that points 
and 
lie on 
so that 
and 
. Prove that lines 
and 
intersect on the circumcircle of 
.
be a triangle whose incircle is tangent to 
, 
, 
at 
, respectively. Let 
and 
be the midpoints of 
and 
, respectively. Suppose that points 
and 
lie on 
so that 
and 
. Prove that lines 
and 
intersect on the circumcircle of 
.
.
,
is actually the midpoint of 
.
and 
are collinear. Therefore![\[\angle UBC = \angle UBN + \angle NBC = \angle BNU + \angle IBC = \angle INM + \angle IBC = \angle IDM + \angle IBC = \angle BCI + \angle IBC.\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/6/a/3/6a389f01973361dc72ae128c44b8dcd7d477ad89.png)
This gives 
,
meet at midpoint of arc 
.
meet 
again at a point 
.
cyclic and![\[\angle LBI = \angle UNB = \angle INM = \angle IDM = \angle ICB = \frac 12 \angle C.\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/7/2/2/7220fb8ba407bc0c5632294d3a94f01c44f19f99.png)
Thus 
.
,
gives the desired concurrency on 
be the incenter of 
where we use the fact that 
is tangent to 
.
.
.
where we use the fact that 
is cyclic. Thus, we get that 
.
so 
,
because why not. 
Done.
