Zero. Where did the number zero come from? How long has zero been around? Who came up with the simbol zero? Next time you are driving through the country look and try to count the number of cows. I am sure that you will not
start with the number zero. You will most likly start with one. Why is that? Don't we want to know that you are starting to count by starting with zero? I mean when you don't see any cows you have counted zero cows. Now
lets continue to count, one, two, three, ..., nine, ten. Now what is the number ten? You have a one in the ones place but you put a zero in for the tens place. Why is that? My guess is that you need to show that you have
nothing in the tens place.
You also have the problem of knowing exactly what one means. If I say “three fifty”. What is the first thing that comes to your mind? 350 Miles? $350? Or even $3.50? We have a way of interpreting that but we all use slang to
interpret numbers. That is the same as in ancient times. There times where the number were used in slang but the zero made since. In the history section you will be able to get a better explanation of how that is and why.
History of Zero This is where you can find the history of zero and how it came to be in our number system.
Explanation of Zero Here is a cool proof from Charles Seif’s, from his book Zero: a Biography of a Dangerous Idea