Ancient Indian text contains earliest zero symbol

Discussion in 'Science' started by Diablo, Sep 14, 2017.

  1. Diablo

    Diablo Well-Known Member

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    Interesting article here:

    https://www.theguardian.com/science...ent-indian-text-contains-earliest-zero-symbol

    Extract:
    Nowt, nada, zilch: there is nothing new about nothingness. But the moment that the absence of stuff became zero, a number in its own right, is regarded as one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of mathematics.

    Now scientists have traced the origins of this conceptual leap to an ancient Indian text, known as the Bakhshali manuscript – a text which has been housed in the UK since 1902.
     
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  2. RoccoR

    RoccoR Well-Known Member Donor

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    RE: Ancient Indian text contains earliest zero symbol
    ※→ Diablo, et al,

    I do appreciate those scientific soundbites, like that of Dr Mansfield (School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New South Wales), then some of the other news sources. I find them more enlightening.

    Similar to the Ancient Egyptians, most of Humanity (today) uses a Based 10 System [supplemented by the use of the Binary (Base 2), Octal (Base 8) and Hexta (Base 16), and today we use the Base 64 Number Systems for things like the (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions or MIME → and other data handling systems) ]. The Ancient Mayan Number System was a Base 20 System (Vigesimal); and the Ancient Babylonians used a Base 60 Number Systems.

    Once any particular system became fully developed, they all had some symbology to designate "Zero." The Moors (11th Century) were the source for the enlightenment of the Zero concepts for most of Europe.

    Those societies that had not used the "Zero" either as a number or Value Place Holder were generally lagging behind in development (culturally, commercially, industrially and science).

    I was almost 40 before I began to learn about how much more advanced the ancients were in terms of some keystone sciences. It made me wonder about the reasons these societies and cultures faded away.

    Most Respectfully,
    R
     
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