Much Ado about Nothing: the History of Zero
By Jay Connor (Year 8)
Nil, naught, nada, cipher, zilch; zero has taken many forms over the years. From simply meaning ‘nothing’ to being the driver of calculus, the enigmatic zero has puzzled even the greatest mathematicians. Paradoxically, its straightforward symbol may be one of the most widely known logos throughout the world. Here it goes: the history of just about nothing whatsoever. The Sumerians, arguably the oldest civilisation in the world, were the first to develop an elementary counting system. They used this to keep an account of their stock of goods; cattle, horses and donkeys were among the subjects registered. In this ingenious system, the placement of a particular symbol relative to the others designated its value. The Sumerian system was handed down to the Akkadians, another empire based in Mesopotamia and modern day Iraq. It was subsequently given to the Babylonians in 2000 B.C., whose intelligent, innovative mathematicians invented the use of zero, to signify that a number was absent from a column. Nevertheless, this was still far from the symbol we know today. In around 650 A.D., the astute Indian mathematician and astronomer Brahmagupta formalized arithmetic operations using zero. He used dots underneath the number to indicate ‘nil’. These annotations were referred to as ‘sunya’ (meaning empty) or ‘kha’ (meaning place). In addition, Brahmagupta wrote standard rules for reaching zero through the process of addition and subtraction. The only error in his text was the instructions for division by zero. It would still be several centuries before ‘nothing’ reached Europe. The great Arabian voyagers would first bring the texts of Brahmagupta back from India, along with the rich spices, fiery tigers and other new discoveries. By 773 A.D., zero would reach Baghdad and be developed by Arabian mathematicians. In the ninth century, Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khaworizmi was the first to work on equations and algebraic functions that equalled zero. The word ‘cipher’ derives from the word ‘sifr’, with the latter term being used by al-Khowarizmi to mean zero. Thanks to the conquest of Spain by the Moors, zero finally reached Europe. By 879 A.D., zero was symbolised as the plain yet distinctive oval we know today. The brainy Italian mathematician Fibonacci would be the next great mind to contemplate ‘nada’. His ‘Abacus Book’, written in 1202, was a great success. Fibonacci's developments quickly gained notice by Italian merchants and German bankers. However, governments were still suspicious of Arabic
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