Decades of standards and error‑handling improvements mean similar system-breaking moments are rare in 2025.
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(Image credit: Vixhal ) Divide by zero is one of computing’s most notorious error conditions. Yet even before the digital age, divide by zero calculations could cause mechanical calculators to be thrown into chaos by the impossible, or more correctly, this ‘undefined operation.’ A striking example is provided by a video clip shared by mathematics and science enthusiast Vixhal on X, embedded below. The 1950s technological marvel spins its gears wildly and appears to be screaming “oil me, switch me off,” after being commanded to journey into mathematical oblivion.
What happens when you divide by zero on a mechanical 1950s calculator?In the 1950s, mechanical calculators didn’t have the safety checks of modern machines. So when someone tried to divide a number by zero, the calculator didn’t display an error. Instead, it would enter into… pic.twitter.com/4N8dwzzajh November 30, 2025
Intel’s milestone 4004 microprocessor , released in 1971, is famous for being designed to be the heart of a calculator. However, even this chip didn’t have hardware designed to handle an errant divide by zero instruction/condition. Actually, the 4004’s limited instruction set didn’t even natively support a simple divide instruction.
Nevertheless, the Busicom 141-PF calculator , which was the first commercial product to be powered by the Intel chip, included firmware to detect divide by zero and show an error message. That’s a far preferable outcome to crashing, entering into an endless calculation loop, or exhibiting other unexpected behavior.
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Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/1950s-mechanical-calculator-crumbles-in-the-face-of-divide-by-zero-conundrum-relic-spins-its-gears-uncontrollably-in-chaotic-loop-of-endless-motion#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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