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ZERO

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ZERO

Can you imagine yourself working on complicated mathematical equations in calculus or trigonometry without using or even encountering the number zero?  Do you think you can perform messy and complex math problems in algebra – or even elementary arithmetic operations – without facing the number zero at one point or another?

It would have been at least mildly interesting to perform square root extractions using Roman numerals, but it would have been a lot of pain to do.  So, while zero is taken to be synonymous with the word “void” most of the time, the number zero makes our life in math more smooth and easy.

Have you ever wondered whoever invented the number zero?  No one knows for sure, but as early as 2,000 BC, the Babylonians, who had been using a sexagesimal number system, had represented the value that we now assign to the number and symbol of zero by a blank space.  In 300 BC, the usage of blank space was replaced by the Babylonians by double-slanted wedges.  This double-slanted wedge, however, was never used alone.

At perhaps the same time, the Mayans of Mesoamerica have used the figure zero in their long calendars.  The Hindus, on the other hand, had developed the earliest form of the decimal system by the time and have used zero.  The earliest use of the number zero was made by Pingala.

The concept of the zero spread through the Arabian nations, through North Africa and through Europe through trading.  Zero was called “sunya” in Sanskrit, meaning “void.”  When the symbol came to the Arabs, “sunya” was translated into the Arabic “safira.”

The person generally credited to have brought the idea of zero to Europe was the mathematician and philosopher Fibonacci, the author of the mathematical concept Fibonacci’s Square.  Fibonacci grew up in the Arabic North Africa.  He translated the Arabic “safira” to “zephyrum.”  Zephyrum became “zefiro” in Italian, and the Venetians further contracted the word into “zero.”