<s>[INST] Why dividing by zero still works Today, I was at a class. There was a question:

If $x = 2 +i$, find the value of $x^3 - 3x^2 + 2x - 1$.

What my teacher did was this:
$x = 2 + i \;\Rightarrow \; x - 2 = i \; \Rightarrow \; (x - 2)^2 = -1 \; \Rightarrow \; x^2 - 4x + 4  = -1 \; \Rightarrow \; x^2 - 4x + 5 = 0 $. Now he divided $x^3 - 3x^2 + 2x - 1$ by $x^2 - 4x + 5$.
The quotient was $x + 1$ and the remainder $x - 6$. Now since $\rm dividend = quotient\cdot divisor + remainder$, he concluded that $x^3 - 3x^2 + 2x - 1 = x-6$ since the divisor is $0$.
Plugging $2 + i$ into $x - 6$, we get $-4 + i$.
But my question is, how was he able to divide by zero in the first place? Why did dividing by zero work in this case?
 [/INST] The division your teacher did is polynomial division. He did not divide by zero; he divided by $x^2 - 4x + 5$.
The long division he did is just an algorithm that allows you to get the following identity:
$$x^3 - 3x^2 + 2x - 1 = (x^2 - 4x + 5)(x+1) + x-6$$
This is an identity involving multiplication, not division. Now, when you plug in $x = 2 + i$, you're not dividing by zero; you're multiplying by zero, which you should agree is allowed.
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