Facts about Zero

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800px-Number_zero

A peek into History: Zero is India’s contribution to the world of Mathematics. It has its origin in the Hindu scriptures, “The Vedas”. It is referred to as “Sunya” in Sanskrit. The credit of introducing the formal concept of “Zero” to the world goes to the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta. In the pre Islamic age, the Arabians adopted this concept of “Sunya” and referred to it as “Sifr” in their works. The literal meaning of “Sifr” is “empty”. It then found its way into the Italian civilization when they concocted the term “Zefiro” or “Zevero” via “Safira” or “Sifr”. The English and the French then adopted this concept from the Italians and gave it the nomenclature “Zero”. The English first used the word “Zero” in the year 1598 AD.

Zero is the base around which the decimal system has been formulated. The Italian mathematician Fibonacci, who is being credited with introducing the decimal system to Europe used the term “Zephyrum” to describe the word “Zero”. There are various other notations for “Zero” such as “Nil”, “Nought”.

Qualities of Zero as a placeholder element: Zero is a very beautiful number. Zero is said to be the placeholder number. There is a beautiful story which is worth sharing to explain the beauty of zero as a placeholder element. Once all the numbers from 1 to 9 went to a market. They stood next to each other in the ascending order of value. The number 9 being the biggest swelled with pride and started making fun of 1 as being small and puny. Zero being a chivalrous character could not stand the humiliation heaped on 1 and went and silently stood to the left of 1, making it 10 thereby bigger than 9. This effectively shut out the bragging of 9 and brought out the importance of Zero being referred to as the placeholder number.

Mathematical qualities of Zero: Zero as a number has certain properties which can be considered unique. Zero multiplied by any number is Zero. Zero divided by any number is still Zero. No number can be divided by Zero. As per the modern mathematics, Zero cannot be divided by itself. However, in ancient mathematics, Brahmagupta had postulated that Zero divided by Zero is equal to Zero. This has been disputed by modern mathematicians.

It is normally felt that Zero does not have any value. In fact the value of Zero is priceless. It cannot be measured in finite terms. Zero along with 1 are the only ingredients of the binary system which is the only system understood by every computer in this world. Such is the power of Zero that without Zero, no computer in this world can function. The decimal system of numbers has no meaning without Zero. Without Zero, one could not have measured the distance between the earth and the moon. So setting foot on the moon would have been impossible without Zero.

The Power of Zero: The qualities of Zero have been best illustrated by the Indian intellectual great Swami Vivekananda. It happed thus that once he was invited to deliver a lecture at a prominent place. The organizers wanted to ridicule him and hence when the turn came for Swami Vivekananda came to speak, they drew the figure of Zero on the screen and sat back to enjoy the fun. They had reckoned without the brilliance of Swami Vivekananda. The beautiful manner in which Swami Vivekananda connected Zero with the cosmos and the birth of the Universe left everyone spellbound and craving for more. Such is the power of Zero.

Use of Zero in other walks of life: There are many interpretations of the word Zero. In sporting terms, it is referred to as Love in Tennis, Nil in Football and Duck in Cricket to name a few. In the fashion world too, there is talk about having a Size Zero figure. In present times, the vast empty space where the Twin Towers once stood magnificently before being brought down by an act of madness on September 11, 2001 is known as Ground Zero.

Final Statement about Zero: We have seen as to how zero in its numerical form has importance as a place holder number. The beauty is that the number Zero even when represented in words Zero has tremendous meaning. For example let us reorganize the first sentence of this article by altering the position of the word “Zero”.

India’s contribution to the world of mathematics is Zero”.

Now let us change the position of Zero and see what it conveys.

Zero is India’s contribution to the world of mathematics.

The statement has been made, isn’t it?

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