The Number Zero

     When reading the blog post about representing numbers, specifically the base-ten place value system, it got me thinking about the number zero and how if you put it in the middle of a number like 321 (three hundred and twenty one), that number becomes 3201 (three thousand two hundred and one). One little number that is supposed to mean nothing completely changes another number. It sparked my curiosity on what was there before zero came to be a number and how the actual zero we use today was created. 


     In the ancient civilizations when a place-value number system was finally set up one would think that there would have to be a zero involved, but there wasn't. The Babylonians didn't use the number "0" for over 1000 years. Their number system was based on 60, not 10 like ours, and from 1700 BC to around 400 BC they didn't distinguish between numbers like 246 and 2406, instead it would have to be interpreted by what context it was used in. During 400 BC is when they decided to use two angled wedge symbols in the place for zero, or where there was supposed to be an empty space as they saw it. This was all written in cuneiform, which was symbols pressed into soft clay tablets. So the number 246 to change it to 2406 they would put 24 " 6. Everyone did not use this technique though. At an ancient Mesopotamian city called Kish, which today is south-central Iraq, around 700 BC they used three hook like symbols ''' to indicate an empty space. Other cities around that time also used a different method by just placing one hook ' for an empty place. 


     Around that time the Greeks would actually start using the symbol "0" but only a few astronomers would use it and eventually it faded out. The next appearance would be in India around 650 AD. Before then Indian mathematicians used a filled in dot to indicate zero or an empty space. Even in 650 AD there is debate on if the actual symbol "0" was really being used, but by 876 AD there was enough historical evidence to mark that as a genuine    date. Around that time the Mayans also developed a place-number value system that contained a zero, and unlike the Babylonians they used a system to base 20. Although historians have also found that the Mayans were using zero long before they even set up a place-valued number system; they very well could have been the first ones to use it. The Europeans adopted the Indian number system though and by 1200 they were using the sign zero but that’s all it was to them, a sign not a number like 1,2, or 3 and not tell much later did zero earn its spot as an actual number.


     So there really is no solid evidence on who created the actual “0”. You could say that zero got created by a number of civilizations and cultures all put together and you would be right. Some had more influence than others but it took a long time and a lot of ideas and techniques put together to get the zero we have today. 




Here are two sources where I got my information from. 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-the-origin-of-zer

http://www.gap-system.org/~history/HistTopics/Zero.html