TITLE: Why is $\infty \cdot 0$ an indeterminate form, if $\infty$ can be treated as a very large positive number?
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: Why is $\infty \cdot 0$ indeterminate?
Although $\infty$ is not a real number, it can be treated as a very large positive number, and any number multiplied by $0$ is $0$. Why not in this case?

REPLY [3 votes]: Short Answer
The form "$0\cdot \infty$" is an indeterminate form because there are examples of functions $f(x) \to 0$ and $g(x) \to +\infty$ such that

$f(x) g(x) \to 0$,
$f(x) g(x) \to L \in \mathbb{R}$, and
$f(x)g(x) \to \pm \infty$.

Since knowing that a limit has the form $0\cdot \infty$ is insufficient to determine the value of that limit, such limits are said to have indeterminate form.
Long Answer
Typically, one of the first theorems which is taught when students start learning about limits is something like:

Theorem 1: Suppose that $f$ and $g$ are two functions, and that there are $L,M\in\mathbb{R}$ such that
  $$ \lim_{x\to a} f(x) = L
\qquad\text{and}\qquad
\lim_{x\to a} g(x) = M. $$
  Then
  $$
\lim_{x\to a} f(x)g(x) = LM. $$

This theorem states that if two functions each have a limit at some point, then (1) the product of the two functions has a limit at that point and (2) the limit of the product is the product of the limits.  Assuming that the hypotheses are met (i.e. both functions have finite limits at some point), then we can determine the limit of the product.
In cases where the hypotheses are not met (for example, if $\lim_{x\to a} f(x) = +\infty$), the theorem does not apply.  However, we might still like to compute limits as though the theorem did apply (that is, we might like to determine a more relaxed set of hypotheses under which the statement of the theorem might still hold).  For example,

Theorem 2: Suppose that $f$ and $g$ are two functions, that there is $L>0$ such that
  $$ \lim_{x\to a} f(x) = L,
\qquad\text{and}\qquad
\lim_{x\to a} g(x) = +\infty. $$
  Then
  $$ \lim_{x\to a} f(x) g(x) = +\infty. $$

This theorem says, more or less, that $L \cdot (+\infty) = +\infty$ whenever $L>0$.  Even though $g$ has no limit at $a$ (or, if you prefer, $g$ has an infinite limit at $a$), we can still determine how the limit of the product behaves at $a$. It is in this sense that we may treat infinity like a very large real number.  It isn't actually a very large real number, but in this context, it behaves kind of like a very large real number.
Now, once we start treating infinity like a very large real number, it is very tempting to attempt to give the following theorem:

Non-Theorem:  Suppose that $f$ and $g$ are two functions.  Then
  $$ \lim_{x\to a} f(x) g(x) = \left( \lim_{x\to a} f(x) \right) \left( \lim_{x\to a} g(x) \right). $$

If one attempts to use such a theorem, however, one should quickly realize that there are many examples where this simply doesn't work.  Even if $f$ and $g$ behave relatively nicely near $a$ (e.g. one of them diverges to $\pm \infty$), it may not be possible to determine the limit.  In any such case, the limit could be said to be indeterminate.
For example, let $f(x) = x^{-1}$ and let $g(x) = x^{\alpha}$.  If $\alpha > 0$, then
$$ \lim_{x\to +\infty} g(x) = +\infty, $$
and
$$ \lim_{x\to +\infty} f(x) = 0 $$
in any case.  Therefore, with respect to the non-theorem above, we might try to conclude that
$$ \lim_{x\to a} f(x) g(x) "=" 0 \cdot (+\infty). $$
That is, the limit has the form $0\cdot \infty$.  But note that there are (at least) three distinct cases:

If $0 < \alpha < 1$, then
$$ \lim_{x\to \infty} f(x) g(x)
= \lim_{x\to \infty} x^{\alpha - 1}
= 0,
$$
since $\alpha - 1 < 0$.
If $\alpha = 1$, then
$$
\lim_{x\to \infty} f(x) g(x)
= \lim_{x\to\infty} x^{0}
= \lim_{x\to \infty} 1
= 1.
$$
If $\alpha > 1$, then
$$
\lim_{x\to\infty} f(x) g(x)
= \lim_{x\to \infty} x^{1-\alpha}
= +\infty,
$$
since $\alpha - 1 > 0$.

Hence knowing that the limit has the form $0\cdot \infty$ does not give us enough information to determine the value of that integral.  Indeed, we can come up with examples like the above which take any possible value, including both positive and negative infinity.  Since knowing the form of the limit is not enough to determine the value of the limit, we reasonably say that the limit is of indeterminate form.