ZERO

Focus Of Presentation

The History of Zero

Before Zero

Birth of Zero

Importance of Zero

In Mathematics

In Other Fields

Life Without Zero

Can you imagine mathematics without zero?Numbers are used to count creatures or objects 40 cows in the field

Six loaves of bread at the marketplace

Counting zero sheep or loaves of bread does not make much sense

Zero was just not needed!

Before Zero

Numbers were used for thousands of

years before they used zero

Historical records show different path

towards the concept

Zero made appearances only to vanish again

Mathematicians were searching for it ,yet did

not recognize its fundamental significance

Egyptians

Egyptian hieroglyphics were used as early as 3500 B.C.E.

Egypt did not have or need a zero.

Even without zero, Egyptians became masters of mathematics.

Greeks

The Greeks brought mathematics to its

highest point in ancient times.

Around 500 BC, the Greeks developed a

newer more sophisticated system

This way avoided repeated letters

Romans

The Romans also had

a number system

It was a step back from

the less sophisticated

Egyptian system.

The Roman 87,

LXXXVII, requires

seven symbols, with

several repeats

Still…

The Egyptian, Greek and Roman number

systems had no zeros

Even though the Greek number system

was more sophisticated than the Egyptian

and Greek, it was not the most advanced.

Babylonians

2500 B.C.E., the Babylonians used a system of

two symbols

Base 60

They sometimes used a space to represent an

empty position.

By about 200 C.E., they used a pair of small

triangles to represent an empty position.

Babylonians never actually invented a zero, they

made an important first step!

Babylonians

Birth of Zero

In the history of culture the discovery of zero will always stand out as one of the greatest single achievements of the human race.

-Tobias Danzig

Without zero we would lack

Calculus, financial accounting, the ability to make arithmetic computations quickly and computers!

India

Hindu culture had a positional number system in base tenThey used a dot to represent an empty place Sunya which meant “empty” was the name for this

dot

At this point, the early zero was a placeholder and an aid in computation

By 500 C.E., the Hindus use a small circle to represent Zero!This circle was recognized as a numeral

Hindu- Arabic Numerals

Arabic people recognized the value of the

Hindu system

They adapted the numerals and computation

Then spread the ideas in their travels

The zero was named with the Arabic word

sifz

The actual word “zero” came from Italy

Fear of Zero!

Europeans resisted Hindu-Arabic numerals

It seemed strange The numerals, including zero, were not

accepted

Florence, Italy, passed a law prohibiting the use of the numerals 0 could be changed to look like 6 or 9

Slowly, the numbers became accepted1500s

Use of Zero

By 130 AD Ptolemy was using a symbol

for Zero.

It was used alone and hence was the first

documented use of the number zero in the

old world.

The Oldest known text to use Zero in the

decimal place value system was the Jain

text dated 458AD

Spreading The News

Leonardo of Pisa, known as Fibonacci Born to a merchant

family living in North Africa

Learned Hindu-Arabic numerals from his Arabic tutors

He brought the news of zero and new computational methods to Europe in his book

Importance of Zero

It plays a central role in math. As a additive identity

in integers ,real nos. and other algebraic structures

As a place holder in the place value system.

It has been called a natural no.and has a special role in measuring of physical quantities.

In the real-number system,

0 is the only number that is neither negative

nor positive.

It represents the boundary between the

negative and the positive numbers.

This property makes 0 the natural starting

point, or origin, on many scales, as on the

coordinate axes and on thermometers.

Zero Is A Special Number

If we add 0 to any number, the sum is the

original number

Same is true for subtraction

If you multiply any number by 0, the product is

0

If you raise any nonzero number to the power

of 0, the resulting number is 1

If you divide 0 by any nonzero, the quotient is 0

Any number divided by 0 is undefined

Zero is…..

It is the number that separates positive

numbers from negative numbers

It is a natural number

It is even

It is the integer that precedes one

Zero must sit in its rightful place on the

number line, before on and after negative

one

YET….

zero sits at the end of the computer key

board

At the bottom of the telephone!

Because we always start counting with

one!

Resources Anthony, Glenda, and Margaret Walshaw. “Zero: A

“None” Number?” Teaching Children Mathematics.

August 2004

Humes, Alexander. Zero to Lazy Eight, The

Romance of Numbers. Simon and Shuster. New York,

New York, 1993.

Ifrah, Grorges. The Universal History of Numbers.

John Wiley and sons, Inc. New York, New York, 2006.

O’Connor, JJ and E F Robertson. “History Topic: A

history of Zero,” MacTutor History of Mathematics.

Noverber 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-

andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Zero.html

Resources

Seife, Charles. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. Penguin Group Penugin Putnam Inc. New York, New York, 2000.

Wallin, Nils-Bertil. “The History of Zero, How was Zero Discovered?” Yale Global, 19 November, 2002.

Wilson, Patricia S. “Zero: A Special Case.” Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. 6 no 5 300-3, 308-9 Jan 2001.

“O” Wikipedia, May 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_%28number%29

This Presentation can be

used for Classes V TO

VII

for Maths Activities