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What is the origin of zero? How did we indicate nothingness before zero?

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mwkruse
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Scientific American: What is the origin of zero? How did we indicate nothingness before zero?

The symbol changed over time as positional notation (for which zero was crucial), made its way to the Babylonian empire and from there to India, via the Greeks (in whose own culture zero made a late and only occasional appearance; the Romans had no trace of it at all). Arab merchants brought the zero they found in India to the West. After many adventures and much opposition, the symbol we use was accepted and the concept flourished, as zero took on much more than a positional meaning. Since then, it has played avital role in mathematizing the world.

Comments

7 responses to “What is the origin of zero? How did we indicate nothingness before zero?”

  1. Virgil Avatar
    Virgil

    I have always been fascinated by this discussion and how zero has been seen through the history. Interestingly the Greeks were not sure about how to represent zero as something if it was in fact nothing. It almost seems like they have a problem differentiating between zero being a “representation” of nothing rather than nothing; strange.
    It all certainly leads to a whole string of philosophical and religious conversations, with the Jews of course arguing that “it makes no sense that there is something when there should be nothing.”
    Cool stuff…thanks for posting this.

    Reply
  2. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    You are welcome, Virgil. Think “nothing” of it. 🙂
    It was the rediscovery of zero in about the 13th Century (as I recall) that really seemed to get a host of innovations underway in Europe. It is interesting what a difficult concept zero and nothing are.

    Reply
  3. Virgil Avatar
    Virgil

    Michael, indeed a “nothing” concept is quite difficult to grasp…heck, even considering how smart I am, I still have a hard time with it (I am being funny of course). We were talking astronomy a while back and considering the fact that the universe is expanding into “nothingness” a “place” where there is literally nothing, not even time. Such concepts are difficult but important to consider in light of philosophy especially.

    Reply
  4. RPS Avatar
    RPS

    Curious… I had always thought it was the Mayans that discovered the zero — the absence of value… Guess I missed the lesson that day!

    Reply
  5. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Rodger I think that the Mayans’ ancestors the Olmecs discovered zero first. They predated the Greeks. It appears to have played a significant role in their astronomy. However, they died out and the concept apparently went with them in the Americas.
    The Near East cultures began using the double slash indicator in some contexts. The Greeks took the concept a little farther but still failed to make solid mathematical use of the number. The Islamic Arabs kept the Greek ideas alive. The idea reappeared in Europe in the 13th century and, along with introduction of Arabic numerals, contributed to radical transformations in Europe.
    Alfred Crosby has a great book called “The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250-1600.” Double entry bookkeeping was beginning around this same time except they were using Roman Numerals and were just catching on to the idea of zero. The Roman Numeral thing still existed in some places after 1600.
    You think balancing a check book is hard today, try using Roman Numerals!
    🙂

    Reply
  6. ZZMike Avatar
    ZZMike

    The Romans did OK – they represented “nothing” by, well, nothing. That’s one of the reasons they never fell into the insidious “divide by zero” trap.
    “Double-entry bookkeeping”: we bow our heads in reverence to one of the greatest inventions of human civilization (usually attributed to a Venetian).
    Grasping the concept of nothing: Here’s an exercize that may help. Go off to your usual dark, quiet meditation place. First, think of the space around you. Imagine it away – into nothing. Now you’ll need to step a way off the Earth, ’cause that’s the next thing you’re going to imagine away. Proceed by steps to remove the Sun, the planets, the Galaxy. Now remove the stars from the Universe. Remove everything else – cosmic dust, dark matter, dimly-seen matter, until there’s nothing left.
    Now remove that “nothing”.

    Reply
  7. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Mike, I would do this exercise but it only makes my brain hurt. 🙂

    Reply

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