would maths have stagnated without the introduction of zero?

Question

why was zero introduced?

Answer 1

Bit like asking if Science would have stagnated without Newton's 'discovery' of Gravity ...

Fact is, 'zero' (or none, nothing) as a concept has existed during our entire existence - eg. my Tribe sends out the men folk to hunt - they are not successful - they come back with 'zero' ... so we pick the berries off that bush - when they have all been picked, how many are left ? (and would we visit the bush again ??))

The ONLY reason to 'focus' on 'zero' is it's WRITTEN representation .. before '0' was written down, a space (blank) would have been left. This didn't mean that 'zero' didn't exist, only that it wasn't explicitly recorded.

Just like programmers used 'underscore' to represent 'blank' in text, sooner or later some 'convention' would have arisen for representing 'blank' in (Arabic) numbers.

Answer 2

The idea of a zero goes back a long way. The introduction of the zero as we know it today originated in India around 250BC. It is one of the most useful "numbers" there is. Computing works on 1's and 0's So you couldn't have asked this question without it.

Answer 3

Zero was introduce as maths would have stagnated without it.

Answer 4

Think of it, the number one had to be one greater than something else. What?
(which implies that something is one less than one)

Zero was not introduced, it always existed, even if humans did not acknowledge it at the time... it was inevidible that someone would realize this.

Answer 5

The Romans never had a numeral or a concept of zero and its said that if they had they would have advanced and taken over the world.

Answer 6

To rate the acting talent of Tom Cruise

Answer 7

is not a matter of introduce it or not...zero does exist!..Although mathematics are quite abstract they do represent something factual of the universe and nature .

Answer 8

because there had to be a bottom line in everything