Zero is a powerful idea that is deeply ingrained in our modern society and has a complicated, difficult journey in our history.
Transcript:
What is something and nothing? The answer is… Zero. When we want to use a placeholder for numbers? We use zero. When we want to switch from positive to negative numbers? We use zero. If we want numbers to cycle or reset? We use zero. Zero is a powerful idea that is deeply ingrained in our modern society and has a complicated, difficult journey in our history.
Greeks, Egyptians, Romans did not have zero in their numerical system. They start counting with one. It wasn’t until 628 AD that the concept of zero was formalized by the Hindus — by Indian astronomer and mathematician, Brahmagupta. He used a small dot to represent zero. The number was formally adopted in the Hindu-Arabic numerical system. People believed that the reason why Hindus were the first to adopt the concept of nothingness in their numerical system was due to their buddhist culture. In Buddhism, the concept of “emptiness” is a central idea worthy of study.
Zero wasn’t immediately adopted by the Europeans. It took almost 1,000 years to set root in Europe. Zero’s late arrival was partly a reflection of the negative views the Europeans held for the concept of nothing. Christian leaders argued that since God is in everything that exists, anything that represents nothing must be evil. In an attempt to save humanity from the devil, they promptly banished zero from existence. Florence, Italy passed a law prohibiting the use of the Hindu-Arabic numerical system because 0 can be changed to look like 6 or 9. Though merchants continued secretly to use it.
Fibonacci played an important role in revolutionizing zero in Europe. He learned the Hindu-Arabic numerals from his Arabic tutors and used it to develop new computational tools without an abacus. Fibonacci’s equations were popular among merchants, and they used the equations involving zero to balance their books. Because the Hindu-Arabic numerical system was so widely used among mathematicians, physicists and merchants like Sir Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes across Europe, it forced Europe to accept the numerical system.
In the past, numbers were there to count things, so if there is nothing there why would we need a number? Now we know zero is an important concept. The concept of zero, initially banned, was eventually allowed for the development of calculus, and lays a foundation for the digital age. The whole of modern technology is built on the idea of something and nothing.That’s zero.
