[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
Because he was waiting for you to reach basic Calculus, probably, when limits and such are introduced. As the denominator approaches infinity, the overall fraction approaches zero, but since the first condition is never actually fulfilled, neither is the second. For practical purposes, though, it’s zero.
[/QUOTE]
He was teaching us the basics of calculus (advanced math class). It was the discussion of limits (from 30y/o memory) that made me think about it - in fact it may have been exactly that statement about the larger the denominator, the closer to zero.
He got a bit annoyed when he couldn’t explain it - I got dumped back to regular maths class for a couple of weeks. He probably just couldn’t think of the answer on the spur of the moment and I sure as hell wasn’t going to ask again - regular maths was bloody boring.
Lemur866 explained it with a wonderful simplicity that I understand completely. Every other explanation has clarified it or been so completely beyond my rusty skills it’s liable to confuse me all over again.
Thanks, ignorance fought as much as I can handle.