Dr. James Anderson from the University of Reading has come up with what could possibly be an elegant solution for the problem of division by zero, which has plagued mathematicians for centuries. Basically he invented a name for the result, called 'nullity' which is something like a union of negative and positive infinity.

Here's the traditional explanation... 

The refusal to divide by zero boils down to the fact that you can then have strange things happening. One can equal two. Zero can equal one. Therefore it just can't be.  

Folks, this entire problem is a perfect example of mathematics professors not smoking enough pot. 

12 / 2 = 6.     Simple. Take a dozen donuts and split them between two people. Each person gets six.  

12 / 1 = 12.    Fair enough. You take twelve things and split them up amongst one person - let's say it's you. You will have twelve things. 

12 / 0 = 12.    I'm serious. You take twelve things and don't split them up with anybody and you'll have twelve things. This is absurdly simple.   

The logic goes that as you approach zero, the result tends towards infinity. It also tends towards negative infinity. When in fact, dividing by nothing is a no-op (to use computer terms). If I'm not dividing something, I can't have both infinitely more and less of the thing than I started with.  Therefore, if the expression does nothing, it can be removed from the equation, leaving 12 = 12. In my example, it also proves that zero equals one, since dividing by zero or one both give you the same result. The argument goes that this cannot be allowed to exist, since it makes no logical sense. Folks, a union of positive and negative infinities makes no logical sense either. So to resolve the paradox, divide by zero is forbidden. Instead of inventing new number systems, we should just take it for what it is - a paradox. Paradoxes exist. They are real. Just as this sentence is a lie. So dividing by zero being a no-op is equally valid with forbidding the operation.

Either way, it results in a paradox. Dr. Anderson is on the right track. His claim is that 12 / 0 = nullity. I say it equals 12. The mathematics community says it's logically illegal.

The funny thing is, we're all right. 

Further reading...