The number zero By: Shreya Thakrar 7KBE

introduction The number zero is the very important digit in our lives. In actual fact zero means nothing but when the same zero is placed in front of a number it increases the value by a tenth. If you do the same thing before a point (decimal) it reduces the value. So zero is very valuable in our lives and you will find out why.

Historical facts on zero The number zero we use today in the Hindu- Arabic numeral system was originated in India at around 650 AD. Two civilizations coincidently invented the number zero. One was made by the Mayan culture and the other civilization was the Indian culture. The Mayans indicated zero by a pair of wedges and the Indians (Hindus) indicated the zero as a dot. The Arab’s then changed it into a circle. Which is being followed today.

How the Mayan's zero looked like

How the Hindu's zero looked like

The difference between all the number systems The term ‘number system’ means a set of numbers. The ancients are the creators of different types of number systems for example: The roman numerals Egyptian numerals Mayan numerals The Babylonian numerals And many more. Out of all these the only people who discovered zero were the Mayans. The others did have a number system that was very complex due to the lack of having the number zero. The numbers had to be written using shapes and letters which was quite confusing to understand, as compared to today’s number system.

Introduction to Europe It was roughly 870 AD zero came to Europe. The European who brought zero to Europe was called Fibonacci from Italy who adopted it from Mohammed-ibn-muna-al-Khowarizmi. The concept of zero that was adopted by the Europeans, was initially put in place in the 19th century by Mohammed-ibn-muna-al- Khowarizmi from the Middle East who was took this idea from the Indians Fibonacci went on to write a book called Liber Abaci (book of calculations).

Expansion of math

The world without zero Just imagine if we, today, did not have the number zero. Life would be very complicated, and wonder how the computers would work without zero as it uses the binary number system. Imagine you counting money where no zero’s were involved and imagine if we were to follow the other number systems. Wonder how the currencies would be printed How complex our lives would be without zero.

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