> The strings get coerced into numbers due to being used with the numeric "/" operator (that's normal Perl behavor). Since the strings can't be parsed as number

> The strings get coerced into numbers due to being used with the numeric "/" operator (that's normal Perl behavor). Since the strings can't be parsed as numbers, they become "0". Huh, that's an odd failure of Perl's normal ethic of doing things that appear to make sense in context. A number should be 0 by default in additive contexts and 1 by default in multiplicative contexts.