Zero also helps us understand its antithesis, infinity, in all of its extreme weirdness. Did you know that one infinity can be larger than another? The first uses of zero in human history can be traced back to around 5, years ago, to ancient Mesopotamia.
There, it was used to represent the absence of a digit in a string of numbers. Do you recall how Romans wrote out their numbers? The number 99 is XCIX. Placeholder notation is what allows us to easily add, subtract, and otherwise manipulate numbers. Placeholder notation is what allows us to work out complicated math problems on a sheet of paper. If zero had remained simply a placeholder digit, it would have been a profound tool on its own.
But around 1, years ago or perhaps even earlier , in India , zero became its own number, signifying nothing. The ancient Mayans, in Central America, also independently developed zero in their number system around the dawn of the common era. When zero is added to a number or subtracted from a number, the number remains unchanged; and a number multiplied by zero becomes zero.
From there, the usefulness of zero exploded. Think of any graph that plots a mathematical function starting at 0,0. This now-ubiquitous method of graphing was only first invented in the 17th century after zero spread to Europe.
That century also saw a whole new field of mathematics that depends on zero: calculus. You may recall from high school or college math that the simplest function in calculus is taking a derivative. A derivative is simply the slope of a line that intersects with a single point on a graph.
To calculate the slope of a single point, you usually need a point of comparison: rise over run. What Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz discovered when they invented calculus is that calculating that slope at a single point involves getting even closer, closer, and closer — but never actually — dividing by zero. We have to learn it, and it takes time.
Elizabeth Brannon is a neuroscientist at Duke University who studies how both humans and animals represent numbers in their minds. In experiments, Brannon will often play a game with 4-year-olds.
And each card will have a number of objects on it. One card will have two dots, for instance. Another will have three. When a card with nothing on it is paired with a card with one object on it, less than half the kids will get the answer right. The University of Oxford, which recently published research findings which have pushed back the first recorded use of zero to a 3rd century CE Indian manuscript, clearly thinks so.
The findings, involving the carbon dating of an ancient mathematical treatise, the Bakhshila Manuscript, have opened up the door in terms of revealing the provenance of the elusive zero. In mathematics, the main difference between the two is that whether there is evidence that it was used in equations, and thus is a repeatable phenomenon. Placeholder zeros have been present for thousands of years. According to Harvard math professor Robert Kaplan, they were first documented 5, years ago in Mesopotamia with the Sumerians using them.
Both the Chinese, with their mathematical model of counting sticks, and the Babylonians were clearly also aware of the concept of zero, but only as just that: a placeholder concept, something that could not be replicated with the same outcome each and every time a particular equation was used. The concept then spread from Mesopotamia to places like China, Babylon, and India — but it was only the latter who made it more than just an idea.
Mathematics at the time was more an expression of philosophical ideas and reasoning, and directed towards more abstract studies like astronomy, as opposed to commerce. This explains why zero could never have been conceptualised in the West. The Greeks, whose astronomical models and mathematical equations certainly did influence their Indian counterparts, abhorred the very idea of nothingness. By the s, zero had spread widely throughout Europe. Later, calculus paved the way for physics, engineering, computers, and most modern financial and economic theories.
The small act of the discovery of zero would later change the way civilizations developed. With modern finance, we find it much easier to conceptualize trade and business. The discovery of zero is also responsible for computers and thus all other technologies that are connected with it. But even with its numerous advantages we got since the discovery of zero, the number still fails to become a favourite number for students.
Can you guess why? The ultimate guide to create homework space for every child. Contents Introduction who discovered zero? The truth behind who discovered zero Development in India History of math and zero in India The modern form The last phase of the journey of Zero. Share this Try It Free. Contact us We are a friendly team based in Cambridge in the UK. Email: info blutick. I agree to the use of the personal data submitted as detailed in the Blutick Privacy Policy.
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