Why the number 0? By Anthony S. Lopez

The History of 0 It is said that the number zero originated or was created in this 3 places. Ancient India, Ancient Babylon, and the Mayan Civilization. Each of these zeros were created at different times. But the one that people think was used first was in Ancient India by the Hindus and the Arabics.

People believe that the number 0 originated or came from the Arabic people. That’s not true, the Arabic people did had the number 0 but they didn’t discovered it. Research shows that the Hindus were one of the first people to actually use 0 as a number. It also says that the Hindus started to use the number 0 in the late 9th century. But people believe that they been using the number 0 way before the birth of Christ.

Zero in India The number 0 does not appear until the late 9th century. The reason for this is because other number systems like the Greeks, Romans, and Chinese didn’t needed it. For example you could write 1056 in the Roman number system like this: MLVI. The word for zero in Hindu-India is “sunya” meaning void or empty. This are the numbers that the Hindus and the Arabics use.

Zero in Babylon There’s evidence that the Babylonians had a 60 place-value number system as early as the 19th century BC. We still use their system foe measuring minutes in an hour and the degrees in a circle(6 x 60=360 degrees) They created 0 in the third century B.C. even if the Babylonians claim to be first users of zero they didn’t understand its modern sense. This is their numeral system.

Zero in the Mayans The symbol for 0 in the Mayans looks like a bowl or an eye. Their numeral system was 20. They got the number twenty by putting 0 below 1. This means that zero is actually 20 and one is 1. So it’s like 20 x 1=20