Decades of standards and error‑handling improvements mean similar system-breaking moments are rare in 2025.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works .
(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.
A 34-year-old Apple Mac crash bug ‘would have gone undiscovered for all eternity,’ but the accuracy of the MAME emulator shone a light on it
DOOM left running on ASUS MyPal PDA for 2.5 years finally crashes
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
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
- CPU air cooler runs ice-cold water through its heatpipes to liquid-cool a GPU — negative-temp DIY mod sees up to 17% performance uplift
- Acer Nitro 60 review: Gaming desktop essentials done right
- Into the Omniverse: How Smart City AI Agents Transform Urban Operations
- Why copper markets are feeling the pinch due to aggressive AI data center expansion — expansive buildout to demand 1.1 million tonnes of copper annually by 2030
- The Largest Digital Zoo: Biology Model Trained on NVIDIA GPUs Identifies Over a Million Species
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.