In addition to John Randall's reference to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_number#Generalizations_and_extensions
there is a comment by Walter Rudin, Arithmetic in [0,infinity], Section 1.22 of his Real and Complex Analysis, Third Edition: "It may seem strange to define 0*infinity = 0. However, one verifies without difficulty that with this definition the commutative, associative, and distributive laws hold in [0,infinity] without any restriction. "The cancellation laws have to be treated with some care ..." Sorry, Henry. I'm getting as far away from _. as I can! Kip Murray [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.math.uh.edu/~km ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
