The History of Zero Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The History of Zero - Essay Example Charles Seife (2000) had written in his book, â€Å"The Biography of a Dangerous Idea†, that The word zero comes from the Sanskrit word "Sunya". The meaning of "sunya" is void or empty. In Arabic the word zero is called as "Sifr", which also means for empty or void. The present word zero comes after several modifications of word "zephyrum", which was used by the great Italian mathematician Fibonacci, who was credited for introducing Indian (Hindu) decimal system into Europe in 12th century. The history of zero is believed as very old. However, according to some historian, it exists from the time of Babylonians. In 200-300 BC, Babylonians were using a symbol that is considered to evolve as zero, which presently has seen today. Babylonians used different place value system, as compared to these days. Babylonians used base 60 instead of 10 as used today. Babylonians used two wedge (") symbol for the zero. Suppose that a number 2103 is written according to Babylonians two wedge symbols than it will be written as 21"3. Here for the place of zero they had used two wedge symbols. However, in some places this two wedge symbols differs. In some places, they had used three hooks and a single hook for denoting an empty place. A tablet believed to be 700 BC found at Kish, which is an ancient Mesopotamian city located east of Babylon and todays south-central Iraq, used three hooks to represent the empty place (OConnor & Robertson). The zero was also used in the Jain mathematics. The Bakshali manuscript, believed to be written around 200 BC and 200 AD, used the zero and negative numbers. The "lokavibhaaga" believed to be the oldest known Jain text from India; dated 458 AD had used Zero. If ones think of history of zero or write it, than they will not forget the contributions of great Indian Scholars. Indian scholar Pingala at around 200 BC had used zero in his binary numbers. The modern binary system that is used todays is entirely based on Pingalas Binary systems