Who Invented Zero? India! (Cmon folks, its off course pre-partition ;) The concept of zero as a number and not merely a symbol or an empty space for separation is attributed to India, where, by the 9th century AD, practical calculations were carried out using zero, which was treated like any other number, even in case of division.[14][15] The Indian scholar Pingala (circa 5th–2nd century BC) used binary numbers in the form of short and long syllables (the latter equal in length to two short syllables), making it similar to Morse code.[16][17] He and his contemporary Indian scholars used the Sanskrit word śūnya to refer to zero or void. In 498 AD, Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata stated that sthānāt sthānaṁ daśaguņaṁ syāt[18] i.e. from place to place each is ten times the preceding,[18][19] which is the origin of the modern decimal-based place value notation.[20][21] The oldest known text to use a decimal place-value system, including a zero, is the Jain text from India entitled the Lokavibhâga, dated 458 AD, where shunya (void or empty) was employed for this purpose.[22] The first known use of special glyphs for the decimal digits that includes the indubitable appearance of a symbol for the digit zero, a small circle, appears on a stone inscription found at the Chaturbhuja Temple at Gwalior in India, dated 876 AD.[23][24] There are many documents on copper plates, with the same small o in them, dated back as far as the sixth century AD, but their authenticity may be doubted.[13] Rules of Brahmagupta The rules governing the use of zero appeared for the first time in Brahmaguptas book Brahmasputha Siddhanta (The Opening of the Universe),[25] 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:[25] The sum of zero and a negative number is negative. 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. Moreover, non-zero positive or negative numbers when divided by zero are either assigned no value, or a value of unsigned infinity, positive infinity, or negative infinity.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 17:05:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015