# Calculated coolness

Earlier this morning, back when it was still dark out and I was too tired to turn on the lights in my office, I was seated at my desk, using the stark lighting of the monitor to see the keyboard. (Sound familiar to anyone?) I was using the calculator to figure out some basic maths (Sorry to Mr. Molnar, my maths teacher, for needing to use a calculator for basic addition), when I got this amazing message on the calculator: Result of function is undefined.  How cool is that! Suddenly inspirted, I flicked on the light and tried to re-create whatever computation I had just done to achieve that message.  I tried for several minutes before I started to think it was all a dream in my head. Good thing I remembered to save a screen shot.

## 2 thoughts on “Calculated coolness”

1. Hey Liam –

It’s too bad you don’t recall the function, otherwise you could define it and become famous in math books everywhere for “Liam’s Theorem”. I am sure that would make Mr. Molnar proud. I know one way to get that message is to divide zero by zero, but I can’t figure out why you’d have typed that in to calculate, no matter how tired you were!

2. Hey Conall –

Since posting this morning, I think I have figured out how I worked my magic. I was indeed dividing zero by zero, although I did not realise it. The NUMLOCK was off, and I was attempting some division. Although the number keys weren’t working, the math function keys were. So I was effectively dividing zero by itself.

And thanks for your confidence in me, but I think there was never a chance of me becoming renown as a mathematical genious. I think “Liam’s Theorem” would end up being more like “Murphy’s Law”, much to Mr. Molnar’s chagrin.