Zero cannot be replaced. If we have $100, without zero, it would be considered as just $1. Zero has also created computers and the internet, using the binary system. Without zero, we would have fewer opportunities.
It is also central to engineering,
physics, and medicine, without which, many discoveries would never be
discovered. Moreover, it reflects nothingness; without which there would be no
end to some things.
Without zero,
we would have no technology and computer. The concept of the binary system
requires a 50% presence of zero. It determines ‘off’, in power. Most of the calculations
and commands in computers require the numbers 0 and 1. Without zero, we wouldn’t
have mathematical help from the calculators and computers. Zero helps
technology build itself by working on the concept of non-existence.
Credit for giving the best contributions
to ‘zero’: Brahmagupta
Brahmagupta
was born in 598 CE. He lived in Bhillamāla, Gurjaradesa (modern Bhinmal in Rajasthan,
India) Brahmagupta became an astronomer of the Brahmapaksha school, one
of the four major schools of Indian astronomy during the period. He studied the
five traditional siddhanthas on Indian astronomy as well as the work of other
astronomers including Aryabhata. Brahmagupta died in 668 CE, and he
is presumed to have died in Ujjain.
Brahmagupta was the first to give rules to compute with zero. For the first time, he defined zero and its operation and developed a symbol for it which is a dot underneath the numbers. He had also written rules for mathematical operations like addition and subtraction using zero. He also:
- defined zero as the number you get when you subtract a number from itself.
- said that zero divided by any other number is zero.
- said dividing zero by zero produces zero. (Although, this seems reasonable, Brahmagupta actually got this one wrong. Mathematicians have now shown that zero divided by zero is undefined – it has no meaning. There really is no answer to zero divided by zero.)
- was the first person to discover the formula for solving quadratic equations.
- wrote that pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, could usually be taken to be 3, but if accuracy were needed, then the square root of 10 (this equals 3.162…) should be used. This is about 0.66 percent higher than the true value of pi.
- adding two negative numbers together always results in a negative number.
- subtracting a negative number from a positive number is the same as adding the two numbers.
- multiplying two negative numbers together are the same as multiplying two positive numbers.
- dividing a positive number by a negative, or a negative number by a positive result in a negative number.
His research contributed towards astronomy in a significant way. He indicated that the Earth is nearer the moon than the sun. He also said the length of a year is 365 days 6 hours 12 minutes 9 seconds and calculated that Earth is a sphere of circumference around 36,000 km (22,500 miles).
Even though Aryabhata invented zero, Brahmagupta defined it. There may be multiple people whose research is significant to the number zero, but it is not fully acknowledged yet. We still don’t know much about the history of Zero, but if we keep the presence of mind, we might come across a significant piece of research, which adds on to the history of Mathematics.
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