Without Indians, there would be no zero

Sidney · 17th June 2005, 20:19

"How much more so if some Indian firm insists on using lakhs, crores and the Samvat era? The Indians are entitled, right? Indian culture invented the concept of zero, after all."

Well, 'Indians' did invent the concept of zero, but not the south Asian indians... It was actually my ancestors, the Olmec 'Indians' of what is today Mexico, that first used Zero:

According to wikipedia: "First use of the number The late Olmec had already begun to use a true zero (a shell glyph) several centuries before Ptolemy in the New World (possibly by the fourth century BC but certainly by 40 BC), which became an integral part of Maya numerals.

By 130, Ptolemy, influenced by Hipparchus and the Babylonians, was using a symbol for zero (a small circle with a long overbar) within a sexagesimal numeral system otherwise using alphabetic Greek numerals. Because it was used alone, not as just a placeholder, this Hellenistic zero is the earliest known documented use of zero as a number in the Old World. In later Byzantine manuscripts of his Syntaxis Mathematica (Almagest), the Hellenistic zero had morphed into the Greek letter omicron (otherwise meaning 70).

Another true zero was used in tables alongside Roman numerals by 525 (first known use by Dionysius Exiguus), but as a word, nulla meaning nothing, not as a symbol. When division produced zero as a remainder, nihil, also meaning nothing, was used. These medieval zeros were used by all future computists (calculators of Easter). An isolated use of their initial, N, was used in a table of Roman numerals by Bede or a colleague about 725, a true zero symbol.

The earliest known decimal digit zero is documented as having been introduced by Indian mathematicians about 300.

An early documented use of the zero by Brahmagupta dates to 628. He treated zero as a number and discussed operations involving this number. By this time (7th century) the concept had clearly reached Cambodia, and documentation shows the idea later spreading to China and the Islamic world, from where it is recorded to have reached Europe in the 12th century."

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24033

17th June 2005, 20:19	#1
Sidney [M] Reviewer Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 16,730	Without Indians, there would be no zero "How much more so if some Indian firm insists on using lakhs, crores and the Samvat era? The Indians are entitled, right? Indian culture invented the concept of zero, after all." Well, 'Indians' did invent the concept of zero, but not the south Asian indians... It was actually my ancestors, the Olmec 'Indians' of what is today Mexico, that first used Zero: According to wikipedia: "First use of the number The late Olmec had already begun to use a true zero (a shell glyph) several centuries before Ptolemy in the New World (possibly by the fourth century BC but certainly by 40 BC), which became an integral part of Maya numerals. By 130, Ptolemy, influenced by Hipparchus and the Babylonians, was using a symbol for zero (a small circle with a long overbar) within a sexagesimal numeral system otherwise using alphabetic Greek numerals. Because it was used alone, not as just a placeholder, this Hellenistic zero is the earliest known documented use of zero as a number in the Old World. In later Byzantine manuscripts of his Syntaxis Mathematica (Almagest), the Hellenistic zero had morphed into the Greek letter omicron (otherwise meaning 70). Another true zero was used in tables alongside Roman numerals by 525 (first known use by Dionysius Exiguus), but as a word, nulla meaning nothing, not as a symbol. When division produced zero as a remainder, nihil, also meaning nothing, was used. These medieval zeros were used by all future computists (calculators of Easter). An isolated use of their initial, N, was used in a table of Roman numerals by Bede or a colleague about 725, a true zero symbol. The earliest known decimal digit zero is documented as having been introduced by Indian mathematicians about 300. An early documented use of the zero by Brahmagupta dates to 628. He treated zero as a number and discussed operations involving this number. By this time (7th century) the concept had clearly reached Cambodia, and documentation shows the idea later spreading to China and the Islamic world, from where it is recorded to have reached Europe in the 12th century." http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24033 __________________ lazyman Opteron 165 (2) @2.85 1.42 vcore AMD Stock HSF + Chill Vent II