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Poll: Is Zero Even or Odd?
I've been in some interesting discussions recently, and as I drill down to find out what people think, this question arose.
As a number, is zero even or odd?
There's a twitter poll underway, so I thought I'd ask the same question here. So as a number, is zero even or odd? Speculation and discussion welcome in the comments.
- ColinWright 6y agoFWIW, the twitter poll is ... unsettling.
- yorwba 6y ago0 : ℝ ↦ ℝ is both even and odd, because for all x ∈ ℝ, we have 0(x) = 0(-x) = -0(x).
- ColinWright 6y agoThat's why the wording here is specifically: > As a number, is zero even or odd? Treated as a number, not as a function.
- isoblvck 6y agoBy definition odd means the only factors are 1 and itself which clearly fails the definition of even is when divided by 2 there's 0 remainder which technically works but it also works for literally any number so it's neither even or odd
- ColinWright 6y agoI think you are confusing or conflating the definitions of "odd" and "prime". I find I can't follow your reasoning at all, so let me give you my reasoning. The accepted definition of "odd" is that when you divide by 2 you have a remainder of 1. Thus 7 is odd, because when you divide by 2 you get an answer of 3 with a remainder of 1. Similarly 15 is odd, because you divide by 2 to get an answer of 7 with a remainder of 1. The accepted definition of "even" is that when you divide by 2 there is no remainder. Thus 18 is even because when you divide by 2 you get 9 and no remainder. Rephrasing that, if you multiply any integer by 2, the result is always an even number. So 9 times 2 is 18, hence 18 is even. 23 times 2 is 46, hence 46 is an even number. Then zero times 2 is zero, hence zero is an even number.