ZERO

ZERO
Zero is both a number and the numerical digit used to represent that number in numerals. It plays a central role in mathematics as the additive identity of the integers, real numbers, and many other algebric structures. As a digit, 0 is used as a placeholder in place value system. . In the english language, 0 may be called zero, nought or naught, nil, or "o".

ABOUT ZERO

0 is the integer immediately preceding 1. Zero is an even number because it is divisible by 2. . 0 is neither positive nor negative. definitions 0 is also a natural number, and then the only natural number not to be positive. . Zero is a number which quantifies a count or an amount of null size.

In 976 AD the Persian encyclopedist Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-khwarizmi, remarked that if, in a calculation, no number appears in the place of tens, then a little circle should be used "to keep the rows". This circle the Arabs called ifr, "empty". That was the earliest mention of the name ifr that eventually became zero

Muhammad ibn Ahmad alkhwarizmi

Italian zefiro already meant "west wind" from Latin and Greek zephyrus. This may have influenced the spelling when transcribing Arabic ifr.The Italian mathematician Fibonacci , who grew up in North Africa and is credited with introducing the decimal system to Europe, used the term zephyrum. This became zefiro in Italian, which was contracted to zero in Venetian.

In today's modern mathematics, we have become accustomed to zero as a number.The Mayan civilization may have been among the first to have a symbol for zero. The Mayas flourished in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico about 1300 years ago. They used zero as a placeholder, in a vertical placevalue system. It is considered one of their cultures greatest achievements. *The ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks alike had no symbol for zero. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy (ca. A.D. 150) was the first to write a zero at the end of a number. For this he used a circular symbol.

History of zero
Mayan civilization

Ptolemy

In ancient Babylonian history there was no use of the zero. In the later Seleucid period a special symbol, which was also used as a separation mark between sentences, came into use for a zero. There's a definite possibility that the Babylonians used this mark for a zero within a number, as early as the end of the eighth century B.C. Up until the time of Aristotle, there seems to be no evidence that the Babylonians ever regarded zero as a number. Aristotle discussed division by zero in connection with speed through a vacuum.

Aristotle
Western mathematics was held back by the Roman's traditional numbering system. The first to think differently was Leonardo Fibonacci. He was a merchant's son, born in the Italian city-state Pisa, late in the twelfth century. In Pisa, he studied the work of Euclid and other Greek mathematicians. When he was still a boy, he moved to the Muslim city of Bugia, in North Africa. Leonardo got an education in Arabic cultureHe recognized that the Hindu-Arabic numerals, the numerals we use today, were superior to the Roman numerals he had grown up with in the West.

Fibonacci

Euclid

In the sixth century, mathematicians in India developed a place-value system. They introduced the concept of zero to keep their symbols in their proper places. In the seventh century, Hindu scholars introduced to Islam the ideas of zero and placevalue. These ideas spread rapidly throughout the Arabic world. Six centuries later, Fibonacci was so impressed with the ease of Hindu-Arabic numerals that he wrote a book entitled Liber abaci.

The Pisan local merchants, the trading class, ignored Fibonacci's book. They were wallowing in prosperity and did not want to be bothered with giving up Roman numerals and adopting a zero. Febonacci's mathematician friends liked the new number system and slowly over time gave up the Roman numerals. By the fifteenth century, the numerals were showing up on coins and gravestones. Western mathematics had emerged from the Dark Ages, and was flourishing into a new number system with a zero, the Hindu-Arabic numerals. The immediate advances in mathematics after that time are proof of the importance of, the zero

The rules governing the use of zero appeared for the first time in Brahmagupta's book Brahmasputha Siddhanta (The Opening of the Universe), written in 628 AD. Here Brahmagupta considers not only zero, but negative numbers, and the algebraic rules for the elementary operations of arithmetic with such numbers. In some instances, his rules differ from the modern standard. Here are the rules of Brahmagupta:The sum of zero and a negative number is negative.

RULES OF BRAHMAGUPTA
The sum of zero and a positive number is positive. The sum of zero and zero is zero. The sum of a positive and a negative is their difference; or, if their absolute values are equal, zero. A positive or negative number when divided by zero is a fraction with the zero as denominator. Zero divided by a negative or positive number is either zero or is expressed as a fraction with zero as numerator and the finite quantity as denominator. Zero divided by zero is zero.

In saying zero divided by zero is zero, Brahmagupta differs from the modern position. Mathematicians normally do not assign a value to this, whereas computers and calculators sometimes assign NaN, which means "not a number.

IMPORTANCE OF ZERO

In mathematics
The number 0 is the smallest nonnegative integer. The natural number following 0 is 1 and no natural number precedes 0. The number 0 is a whole number and hence a rational number and a real number. The number 0 is neither positive nor negative and appears in the middle of a number line. It is neither a prime number nor a composite number. It cannot be prime because it has an infinite number of factors and cannot be composite because it cannot be expressed by multiplying prime numbers. (0 must always be one of the factors). Zero is, however, even (see parity of zero).

The following are some basic (elementary) rules for dealing with the number 0. These rules apply for any real or complex number x, unless otherwise stated.
Addition: x + 0 = 0 + x = x. That is, 0 is an identity element (or neutral element) with respect to addition. Subtraction: x 0 = x and 0 x = x. Multiplication: x 0 = 0 x = 0. Division: 0x = 0, for nonzero x. But x0 is undefined, because 0 has no multiplicative inverse (no real number multiplied by 0 produces 1), a consequence of the previous rule; see division by zero. Exponentiation: x0 = x/x = 1, except that the case x = 0 may be left undefined in some contexts; see Zero to the zero power. For all positive real x, 0x = 0.

IN SCIENCE
The value zero plays a special role for many physical quantities. For example, on the Kelvin temperature scale, zero is the coldest possible temperature (negative temperatures exist but are not actually colder), whereas on the Celsius scale, zero is arbitrarily defined to be at the freezing point of water. Measuring sound intensity in decibels or phons, the zero level is arbitrarily set at a reference valuefor example, at a value for the threshold of hearing.

In other fields

In some countries and some company phone networks, dialing 0 on a telephone places a call for operator assistance DVDs that can be played in any region are sometimes referred to as being "region 0" Roulette wheels usually feature a "0" space (and sometimes also a "00" space), whose presence is ignored when calculating payoffs (thereby allowing the house to win in the long run). In Formula One, if the reigning World Champion no longer competes in Formula One in the year following their victory in the title race, 0 is given to one of the drivers of the team that the reigning champion won the title with. This happened in 1993 and 1994, with Damon Hill driving car 0, due to the reigning World Champion (Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost respectively) not competing in the championship.

ARYABHATTAS CONTRIBUTION IN ZERO

In 498, Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhatta stated that Sthanam sthanam dasa gunam or place to place in ten times in value, which may be the origin of the modern decimal based place value notation. His positional number system included a zero in his letter code for numerals in his mathematical astronomy text Aryabhatiya. In the Bakhshali Manuscript, whose date is uncertain but which is believed by some scholars to pre-date Aryabhatta, zero is symbolized and used as a number.

BIBLOGRAPHY

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