Friday, August 21, 2009

The Origin of Zero

ZERO IN: The number zero developed in fits and starts over thousands of years.
©iStockphoto/dbuffoon

From Scientific American:

Much ado about nothing: First a placeholder and then a full-fledged number, zero had many inventors.

The number zero as we know it arrived in the West circa 1200, most famously delivered by Italian mathematician Fibonacci (aka Leonardo of Pisa), who brought it, along with the rest of the Arabic numerals, back from his travels to north Africa. But the history of zero, both as a concept and a number, stretches far deeper into history—so deep, in fact, that its provenance is difficult to nail down.

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