Physics Project #1: The History of Zero

1. Physics Project #1:The History of Zero Jacob Suydam Quan Nguyen Jonathan De La Cruz

2. Life Before Zero • Ancient Attitudes • Math was not used for abstract concepts that it is used for today. Ancient civilians only concerned themselves with concrete ideals • They did not really have to worry about “zero” objects or negative numbers when doing math.

3. Life Before Zero • Babylonia • Had a place holder system without zero for over 1000 years. • Until 400BC, they did not distinguish between 2106 and 216. (it was all contextual) • Place holder was a wedge ('') instead of a zero. (ex. 21 '' 6)

4. Life Before Zero • Other placeholders existed, often varying in the amount of “hooks”, depending on cultural influence. • One universal occurrence: The placeholder would never be on the end. (216 '' for 2160 never existed, it was interpreted based on context.)

5. Life Before Zero • The Greeks • Did not make use of placeholders, as most mathematical thought went towards geometry (Did not need to name their numbers) • Merchants were the only ones who recorded numbers, and did not need a new notation.

6. Invention of Zero • The Mayans: • By 665 CE (AD) the Mayans used a place-value number system to base 20 with a symbol for zero. However their use of zero goes back further than this and was in use before they introduced the place-valued number system. This is a remarkable achievement but sadly did not influence other peoples.

7. Invention of Zero • India • Zero was used as a placeholder and as an empty value. • Aryabhata (500AD) • Used the word “kha” for position, which was later the word for zero • First recorded usage of zero would be in 876AD.

8. Invention of Zero • Rules of Zero: • Brahmagupta: • Laid the rules for addition, subtraction and multiplication of zero, but was confused by division. • Zero + a negative = a negative; zero + a positive = a positive. • Zero + zero = zero. • Zero – a negative = a positive; zero – a positive = a negative. • Zero – zero = zero. • Zero x anything = zero.

9. Invention of Zero • Popularizing Zero: • al-Khwarizmi’s book: On the Hindu Art of Reckoning. • First in what is now Iraq to use zero. • Indian ideals spread to China, along with zero. • Ch’in Chiu-Shao’s Mathematical treatise in nine sections. • Zhu Shijie’s Jade mirror of four elements. • Fibonacci is credited for bringing Indian ideals to Europe, but only treated it as a sign, not a number necessarily.

10. Impact of Zero • In society, zero represents an empty value. (Absence of value or nothing) • After the creation of zero, it was used to be a simple placeholder. Now it is a number of its own. • Evolved from its placeholder position into its current meaning as conceptual idea of nothing.

11. Impact of Zero • We are now able to distinguish between the uses of zero in conversations based on context. • Ex: We know that if somebody tells us the price of a slice of pizza is “two fifty", we know that they mean $2.50. However if the context changes to the cost of a speaker system, and somebody tells us the price is “two fifty”, we assume it means $250.

12. Importance of Zero • With zero, the existence of negative and decimal numbers is possible, which is important to concepts such as temperature. • Zero is a “origin point” on some scales, allowing for a balanced start. (Neither positive or negative.) • Zero is also important to rounding, which may require rounding to the nearest tens or higher, numbers that need zero.

13. References • http://www.helium.com/items/295891-the-importance-of-zero-in-mathematics • http://www.gap-system.org/~history/HistTopics/Zero.html • http://www.mediatinker.com/blog/archives/008821.html