The Development of Zero The development of zero was one of the most important mathematical.pdf

677 History of Math The Development of Zero The development of zero was one of the most important mathematical developments in all of human history. It signified a change in the ways in which we think mathematically, and it opened new doors for us that have allowed mankind to progress scientifically and technologically to where we are today. There are several different cultures that we know of that developed a zero; li e those of the Babylonians, Mayans, Chinese, and Hindus of India – but the real credit for invention of the zero as it is today belongs mainly to the Hindu development of it1. The concept of zero is not difficult for people today to comprehend. As a matter of fact, most people are amazed that it is an actual “development” of mathematics that took place outside of the development of addition and subtraction, as we feel it is so obvious intuitively. However, we learn mathematics in an order that makes it easiest to learn quickly – but this way could not be accomplished by the ancients who did not have a developed form of mathematics, formalized and tailored for easy learning2 . The ancient’s use of mathematics was largely for practical purposes, like counting heads of cattle or distance between cities. If you were to ask someone to count how many cows you had, and you had none, he would tell you that you don’t have any, but if you were to 3 ask him to write it down numerically, he would have nothing to write . Zero as a number would be quite absurd to most ancients, as you cannot observe zero of something. It seemed to them that there