Pre-reading ‘1 Work in groups. Make a list of the types of numbers you use each day (eg, telephone numbers) and explain what you use them for. 2 Scan the reading passage and answer these questions, 1 Which number is the passage about? 2 Who deveoped the first counting system? 3 What does 0’ mean in the number 1025? 4. Who did Egyptians pass on knowledge of maths to? 5 What do ‘sunya’ and ‘kha’ mean? 6 When did ‘zero’ reach Europe? Reading 3 Follow the instructions and answer questions 1-13, The story of zero ‘The Sumerians in Mesopotamia were the firse to develop a counting system to keep an account of their goods = cattle, horses, and donkeys, for example. ‘The Sumerian system was to do with position; that is, the placing of a particular symbol in a particular place showed its value. The Sumerian system was handed down to the ‘Akkadians around 2500 BC and then to the Babylonians in 2000 BC. It was the Babylonians who first: thought of a mark to signify that a number was absent from a column; just as 0 in 1025 signifies that there are no. hundreds in that number. Although zero's Babylonian ancestor was a good start, it would still be centuries before the symbol of zero as we know it appeared. ‘The renowned —_ mathematicians among the Ancient Greeks, who learned the basics of their math from the Egyptians, did not have a name for zero, nor did their system have a placeholder as did the Babylonian one. They may have pondcred ic, but there is no definite evidence to say the symbol even existed in their language. Te was the Indians who began to understand zero both as a symbol and asan idea. Brahmagupta, around 650 AD, was the first to formalize arithmetic operations using zero. He used dots underneath numbers co indicate a zero. ‘These dots were alternately referred 10 as ‘sunya’, which means empty, ot ‘kha’, which means place. Brahmagupta wrote standard rules for reaching zero through addition and subtraction as well as the results of operations with zero. ‘The only error in his rules was division by 2er0, which would have to wait for Iseac Newton and G.W. Leibniz. But it would still be a few centuries before zero reached Europe. First, the great Arabian voyagers would bring the texts of Brahmagupta and his colleagues back from India along with spices and other exotic items, Zero had reached Baghdad by 773 AD andGlossary renowned ~ famous and admired for 2 special skill or achievement formalize - to make ‘something official dots ~very small spots of ink or colour equations —in maths, a ‘statement that to sets of numbers, leters or symbols are equel assets and liebilities ~ The Mesopotamian citystate of Sumer hosted the first appearance of the concent of zero as a placeholder in recording numbers would be developed in the Middle East by Arabian mathematicians who would base their numbers on the Indian system. In the ninth century, Mohammed ibn-Musa_al- Khowarizmi was the first to work fon equations that equaled zero, or algebra as ic has come co be known He also developed quick methods for multiplying and dividing numbers known as algorithms (a corruption of his name). Al-Khowariami called zero ‘sift’, from which our cipher comes. By 879 AD, zero was wi almost as we now know it, an o but in this case smaller than the other numbers. And chanks to the conquest of Spain by the Moors, zero finally reached Europe; by the middle of the twelfth century, translations of Al- Khowarizmi’s work had arrived in England. The Italian mathematician, Fibonacci, buil: on Al-Khowarizmi's work with algorithms in his book Liber Abaci, ot "Abacus book,” in 1202. Until that time, the abacus had been the most common tool to perform arithmetic operations. Fibonacci's developments were quickly noticed by. Tralian merchants and German bankers, especially the use of zero, Accountants knew their books were balanced when the positive and negative amounts of their assets and liabilities equaled zero. But governments were still suspicious of Arabic numerals because of the ease with which it was possible to change one symbol into another, Though forbidden, merchants continued to origin of the word cipher, meaning code, from the Arabic siftQuestions 1-5: Completing a summary Complete the summary using the list of words, A~L, below. ‘The early history of zero ‘The purpose of the Sumerian counting system was to record their L It was, however, the Babylonians who first used a2 to show that anumber was not present in a column. [then took a. before the arrival of the modern symbol of zero. Unlike the Babylonians, Ancient Greek mathematicians did not use a4 . in their counting system. It is possible that they considered using a placeholder, but no... exists. A sign B belongings C possessions D hundreds of years E prove F proof G considerable time Hi idea I placeholder Questions 6-9: Identifying writer's claims -Yes/No/Not Given Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? Write YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer NOT GIVEN __ if itis impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 6 ‘he Indians were the first to understand both the concept of zero and the symbol itself, 7 Brahmagupta used a symbol very similar to the modern zero. 8 Allof Brahmagupta’s rules about achieving zero were correct. 9 The history of the origins of zero needs to be re-examined. Questions 10-13: Matching sentence endings Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A~G, below. 10. Knowledge of zero was first spread by. 11 The knowledge from India about zero was advanced by 12 Algebra was invented by 13 Fibonacci’s work was noticed by A Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khowarizmi B Arabian mathematicians € Indians D his colleagues E Arabian travellers F governments G Italian merchants and German bankers Reading discussion 4 Work in groups. Discuss how important numbers are in our lives. Think about whether itis easy to function today without numbers, and the importance of money and financial systems in our lives. 5 Compare your ideas with the rest of the class.