KEY POINT ABOUT µµZERO¶¶

„ THE FIRST THING TO SAY ABOUT ZERO IS THAT THERE ARE TWO USES OF
ZERO WHICH ARE BOTH EXTREMELY IMPORTANT BUT ARE SOMEWHAT
DIFFERENT.
„ ONE USE IS AS AN EMPTY PLACE INDICATOR IN OUR PLACE-VALUE
NUMBER SYSTEM. HENCE IN A NUMBER LIKE 2106 THE ZERO IS USED SO
THAT THE POSITIONS OF THE 2 AND 1 ARE CORRECT. CLEARLY 216 MEANS
SOMETHING QUITE DIFFERENT.
„ THE SECOND USE OF ZERO IS AS A NUMBER ITSELF IN THE FORM WE USE
IT AS 0.
„ THERE ARE ALSO DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF ZERO WITHIN THESE TWO
USES, NAMELY THE CONCEPT, THE NOTATION, AND THE NAME.
 HISTORY
„ ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS NO ZERO. OF COURSE PEOPLE KNEW IF
THEY HAD NOTHING, BUT THERE WAS NO MATHEMATICAL NOTATION FOR IT.
ZERO WAS INDEPENDENTLY INVENTED ONLY THREE TIMES.

„ THE FIRST RECORDED ZERO IS ATTRIBUTED TO THE BABYLONIANS IN THE

3RD CENTURY BC. A LONG PERIOD FOLLOWED WHEN NO ONE ELSE USED A
ZERO PLACE HOLDER.

„ BUT THEN THE u
, HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD IN CENTRAL

AMERICA, INDEPENDENTLY INVENTED ZERO IN THE FOURTH CENTURY CE.

„ THE FINAL INDEPENDENT INVENTION OF ZERO IN INDIA WAS LONG DEBATED

BY SCHOLARS, BUT SEEMS TO BE SET AROUND THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTH
CENTURY.
 HISTORY

„ HOWEVER, THE TIME AND THE INDEPENDENCE OF THIS INVENTION HAS

BEEN DEBATED.

„ FROM INDIA IT MOVED INTO CHINA AND THEN TO THE ISLAMIC COUNTRIES.
ZERO FINALLY REACHED WESTERN EUROPE IN THE 12TH CENTURY. THE
BABYLONIANS WROTE ON TABLETS OF UNBAKED CLAY, USING CUNEIFORM
WRITING
 BABYLONIAN ZERO
„ BY THE MIDDLE OF THE 2ND MILLENNIUM BC, THE BABYLONIAN
MATHEMATICS HAD A SOPHISTICATED SEXAGESIMAL POSITIONAL NUMERAL
SYSTEM.

„ THE LACK OF A POSITIONAL VALUE (OR ZERO) WAS INDICATED BY

A ÷
 BETWEEN SEXAGESIMAL NUMERALS.

„ BY 300 BC, A PUNCTUATION SYMBOL (TWO SLANTED WEDGES) WAS CO-

OPTED AS A PLACEHOLDER IN THE SAME BABYLONIAN SYSTEM.

„ IN A TABLET UNEARTHED AT KISH (DATING FROM ABOUT 700 BC), THE SCRIBE
BÊL-BÂN-APLU WROTE HIS ZEROS WITH THREE HOOKS, RATHER THAN TWO
SLANTED WEDGES.
 BABYLONIAN ZERO

„ THE BABYLONIAN PLACEHOLDER WAS NOT A TRUE ZERO BECAUSE IT WAS

NOT USED ALONE. NOR WAS IT USED AT THE END OF A NUMBER.

„ THUS NUMBERS LIKE 2 AND 120 (2×60), 3 AND 180 (3×60), 4 AND 240 (4×60),
LOOKED THE SAME BECAUSE THE LARGER NUMBERS LACKED A FINAL
SEXAGESIMAL PLACEHOLDER. ONLY CONTEXT COULD DIFFERENTIATE THEM.
 INDIAN ZERO

„ THE FINAL INDEPENDENT INVENTION OF THE ZERO WAS IN INDIA. HOWEVER, THE TIME
AND THE INDEPENDENCE OF THIS INVENTION HAS BEEN DEBATED. SOME SAY THAT
BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMY, WITH ITS ZERO, WAS PASSED ON TO HINDU ASTRONOMERS
BUT THERE IS NO ABSOLUTE PROOF OF THIS, SO MOST SCHOLARS GIVE THE HINDUS
CREDIT FOR COMING UP WITH ZERO ON THEIR OWN.

„ THE REASON THE DATE OF THE HINDU ZERO IS IN QUESTION IS BECAUSE OF HOW IT
CAME TO BE.

„MOST EXISTING ANCIENT INDIAN MATHEMATICAL TEXTS ARE REALLY COPIES THAT ARE
AT MOST A FEW HUNDRED YEARS OLD. AND THESE COPIES ARE COPIES OF COPIES OF
COPIES PASSED THROUGH THE AGES. BUT THE TRANSCRIPTIONS ARE ERROR
FREE«CAN YOU IMAGINE COPYING A MATH BOOK WITHOUT MAKING ANY ERRORS?
WERE THE HINDUS VERY GOOD PROOF READERS? THEY HAD A TRICK.
 INDIAN ZERO

„ INDIAN PLACE NOTATION MOVED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT WITH ONES PLACE
COMING FIRST. SO THE PHRASE ABOVE TRANSLATES TO 4,230,000.

„ USING A VOCABULARY OF SYMBOLIC WORDS TO NOTE ZERO IS KNOWN

FROM THE 458 AD COSMOLOGY TEXT O



. BUT AS A MORE
TRADITIONAL NUMERAL--A DOT OR AN OPEN CIRCLE--THERE IS NO RECORD
UNTIL 628, THOUGH IT IS RECORDED AS IF WELL-UNDERSTOOD AT THAT TIME
SO IT'S LIKELY ZERO AS A SYMBOL WAS USED BEFORE 628.

„ WHICH IT PROBABLY WAS, CONSIDERING THAT 30 YEARS PREVIOUSLY, AN

INSCRIPTION OF A DATE USING A ZERO SYMBOL IN THE HINDU MANNER WAS
MADE IN CAMBODIA.
 INDIAN ZERO

„ A STRIKING NOTE ABOUT THE HINDU ZERO IS THAT, UNLIKE THE BABYLONIAN
AND MAYAN ZERO, THE HINDU ZERO SYMBOL CAME TO BE UNDERSTOOD AS
MEANING "NOTHING." THIS IS PROBABLY BECAUSE OF THE USE OF NUMBER
WORDS THAT PRECEDED THE SYMBOLIC ZERO.
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„ THE RULES GOVERNING THE USE OF ZERO APPEARED FOR THE FIRST TIME
IN BRAHMAGUPTA¶S BOOK 


÷ 
÷

   
 ÷, WRITTEN IN 628 AD.

„ HERE BRAHMAGUPTA CONSIDERS NOT ONLY ZERO, BUT NEGATIVE

NUMBERS, AND THE ALGEBRAIC RULES FOR THE ELEMENTARY OPERATIONS
OF ARITHMETIC WITH SUCH NUMBERS.

„ IN SOME INSTANCES, HIS RULES DIFFER FROM THE MODERN STANDARD.

 ?
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„ HERE ARE THE RULES OF BRAHMAGUPTA:

‡ THE SUM OF ZERO AND A NEGATIVE NUMBER IS NEGATIVE.

‡ THE SUM OF ZERO AND A POSITIVE NUMBER IS POSITIVE.

‡ THE SUM OF ZERO AND ZERO IS ZERO.

‡ THE SUM OF A POSITIVE AND A NEGATIVE IS THEIR DIFFERENCE; OR, IF THEIR

ABSOLUTE VALUES ARE EQUAL, ZERO.

‡ A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE NUMBER WHEN DIVIDED BY ZERO IS A FRACTION

WITH THE ZERO AS DENOMINATOR.
 ?
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‡ ZERO DIVIDED BY A NEGATIVE OR POSITIVE NUMBER IS EITHER ZERO OR IS

EXPRESSED AS A FRACTION WITH ZERO AS NUMERATOR AND THE FINITE
QUANTITY AS DENOMINATOR.

‡ ZERO DIVIDED BY ZERO IS ZERO.

‡ IN SAYING ZERO DIVIDED BY ZERO IS ZERO, BRAHMAGUPTA DIFFERS FROM

THE MODERN POSITION. MATHEMATICIANS NORMALLY DO NOT ASSIGN A
VALUE TO THIS, WHEREAS COMPUTERS AND CALCULATORS SOMETIMES
ASSIGN NAN, WHICH MEANS "NOT A NUMBER.³
 ?
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‡ MOREOVER, NON-ZERO POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE NUMBERS WHEN DIVIDED BY

ZERO ARE EITHER ASSIGNED NO VALUE, OR A VALUE OF UNSIGNED INFINITY,
POSITIVE INFINITY, OR NEGATIVE INFINITY.

‡ ONCE AGAIN, THESE ASSIGNMENTS ARE NOT NUMBERS, AND ARE

ASSOCIATED MORE WITH COMPUTER SCIENCE THAN PURE MATHEMATICS,
WHERE IN MOST CONTEXTS NO ASSIGNMENT IS DONE.
 ?? 
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„ IN SET THEORY, 0 IS THE CARDINALITY OF THE EMPTY SET: IF ONE DOES NOT
HAVE ANY APPLES, THEN ONE HAS 0 APPLES.

„ IN FACT, IN CERTAIN AXIOMATIC DEVELOPMENTS OF MATHEMATICS FROM

SET THEORY, 0 IS  TO BE THE EMPTY SET. WHEN THIS IS DONE, THE
EMPTY SET IS THE VON NEUMANN CARDINAL ASSIGNMENT FOR A SET WITH NO
ELEMENTS, WHICH IS THE EMPTY SET.

„ THE CARDINALITY FUNCTION, APPLIED TO THE EMPTY SET, RETURNS THE

EMPTY SET AS A VALUE, THEREBY ASSIGNING IT 0 ELEMENTS.

„ ALSO IN SET THEORY, 0 IS THE LOWEST ORDINAL NUMBER,

CORRESPONDING TO THE EMPTY SET VIEWED AS A WELL-ORDERED SET.
 Y
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„ 


‡ THE VALUE ZERO PLAYS A SPECIAL ROLE FOR MANY PHYSICAL QUANTITIES.
FOR SOME QUANTITIES, THE ZERO LEVEL IS NATURALLY DISTINGUISHED FROM
ALL OTHER LEVELS, WHEREAS FOR OTHERS IT IS MORE OR LESS ARBITRARILY
CHOSEN.

‡ FOR EXAMPLE, ON THE KELVIN TEMPERATURE SCALE, ZERO IS THE COLDEST

POSSIBLE TEMPERATURE (NEGATIVE TEMPERATURES EXIST BUT ARE NOT
ACTUALLY COLDER), WHEREAS ON THE CELSIUS SCALE, ZERO IS ARBITRARILY
DEFINED TO BE AT THE FREEZING POINT OF WATER.

‡MEASURING SOUND INTENSITY IN DECIBELS OR PHONES, THE ZERO LEVEL IS

ARBITRARILY SET AT A REFERENCE VALUE²FOR EXAMPLE, AT A VALUE FOR
THE THRESHOLD OF HEARING.
 Y
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‡ IN PHYSICS, THE ZERO-POINT ENERGY IS THE LOWEST

POSSIBLE ENERGY THAT A QUANTUM MECHANICAL SYSTEM MAY POSSESS
AND IS THE ENERGY OF THE GROUND STATE OF THE SYSTEM.
 Y
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„
 
‡ ZERO HAS BEEN PROPOSED AS THE ATOMIC NUMBER OF THE THEORETICAL
ELEMENT TETRA NEUTRON.

‡ IT HAS BEEN SHOWN THAT A CLUSTER OF FOUR NEUTRONS MAY BE STABLE

ENOUGH TO BE CONSIDERED AN ATOM IN ITS OWN RIGHT. THIS WOULD
CREATE AN ELEMENT WITH NO PROTONS AND NO CHARGE ON ITS NUCLEUS.