Why the number 0?

By Anthony S. Lopez

The History of 0

• It is said that the number zero originated or was created in this 3 places.

• Ancient India, Ancient Babylon, and the Mayan Civilization.

• Each of these zeros were created at different times.

• But the one that people think was used first was in Ancient India by the Hindus and the Arabics.

• People believe that the number 0 originated or came from the Arabic people.

• That’s not true, the Arabic people did had the number 0 but they didn’t discovered it.

• Research shows that the Hindus were one of the first people to actually use 0 as a number.

• It also says that the Hindus started to use the number 0 in the late 9th century.

• But people believe that they been using the number 0 way before the birth of Christ.

Zero in India

• The number 0 does not appear until the late 9th century.

• The reason for this is because other number systems like the Greeks, Romans, and Chinese didn’t needed it.

• For example you could write 1056 in the Roman number system like this: MLVI.

• The word for zero in Hindu-India is “sunya” meaning void or empty.

• This are the numbers that the Hindus and the Arabics use.

Zero in Babylon

• There’s evidence that the Babylonians had a 60 place-value number system as early as the 19th century BC.

• We still use their system foe measuring minutes in an hour and the degrees in a circle(6 x 60=360 degrees)

• They created 0 in the third century B.C. even if the Babylonians claim to be first users of zero they didn’t understand its modern sense.

• This is their numeral system.

Zero in the Mayans

• The symbol for 0 in the Mayans looks like a bowl or an eye.

• Their numeral system was 20.

• They got the number twenty by putting 0 below 1. This means that zero is actually 20 and one is 1. So it’s like 20 x 1=20