The computer you’re reading this article on right now runs on a binary — strings of zeros and ones. Without zero, modern electronics wouldn’t exist. Without zero, there’s no calculus, which means no modern engineering or automation. Without zero, much of our modern world literally falls apart. - Brian Resnick
(Public domain image from www.pixabay.com)
While the number zero appears around the world at different time periods and among different cultures, India appears to have developed the number system creating a sophisticated mathematical system long before other cultures. David Osborn in his article The History of Numbers, observes:
"The usage of zero along with the other nine digits opened up a whole new world of science for the Indians. Indeed Indian astronomers were centuries ahead of the Christian world.The Indian scientists discovered that the earth spins on its axis and moves around the sun, a fact that Copernicus in Europe didn’t understand until a thousand years later—a discovery that he would have been persecuted for, had he lived longer."
RSS Feed
