THE ZERO SAGA
http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~harsham/zero/ZERO.HTM
Best wishes
Arsham
Elena Marchisotto wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
> A colleague has asked me about the accuracy of what follows.
> Appreciate your help.
>
> Elena
>
>
> THE ZERO STORY:
> -----------------------------
> Source: Unknown, from the Siemens Network Magazine.
>
> A plural is possible only if there is a singular.
> A singular is possible, if there is nothing to begin
> with. And what is the number of nothingness? It was
> a subtle Indian mind, Aryabhata's, who bestowed a name
> and number upon a gap, the profound Shunya, Zero. He
> used the symbol of a circle with a dot within, perhaps
> to show the immense space captured within a mere circle.
> He knew the potential.
>
> Indians became adept mathematicians around 3000BC, when
> the Mohenjadaro and Harappa civilizations flourished. Its
> usage became well known around the 6th century when
> Brahmagupta of Multan formulated the rules of operation of
> Aero in his treatise, Brahmasphutasiddantha, in which he
> treated Zero as just another number: A+0=A, A-0=A; Ax0=0
> A/0=0. He went wrong on the last count. Any quantity divided
> by zero is infinity. The mistake was corrected some centuries
> later when Bhaskara (AD 1114) of Bijapur wrote Leelavati.
> He claimed that the division of any quantity by zero is an
> infinity, or immutable god, a god who does not change when
> worlds are created or destroyed. Only the tangible changes;
> zero the intangible, immutable. For 400 years from the 6th
> century, India was foremost in maths and zero began its journey
> around the world. With the rise of trade among Arabs, Greeks
> and Indians, caravans carried more than goods to China, Arabia
> and Greece. Though Arabs used Indian numbers and Zero, it was
> the Arab mathematician Al-Khowarizmi, who popularised its use
> Shunya became al-sifr or sift, sifr became Zero. al-jabr into
> algebra.
>
> When the Arabs invaded Palestine, the putative Arabic origin of
> Indian numbers earned them the label of infidel Numbers.
> When Turks captured Constantinople in 1453, the city's scholars
> fled to distant parts of Europe, taking the 'zero' with them.
> By the end of 16th century, the zero was all over the world.