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2007-04-18 20:34:55 · 10 answers · asked by anant u 1 in Science & Mathematics Mathematics

10 answers

The Ancient Sumerians, i think

that's in ancient Mesopotamia

2007-04-18 20:42:30 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Zero didn't exist in the ancient or classical world. The greeks and romans didn't have it.

The first hint of a concept of representing zero was in India, where they represented zero by leaving a blank space.

Islamic culture, having conquered an area of the world that managed to cover many different cultural and scientific backgrounds, establish a city of light and religious tolerance, named Bagdad (though interestingly it was Islamic religious intolerance that resulted in the destruction of the center of Islamic religious tolerance).

Here, following on the from the inherited greek tradtion of science and philosophy, they made many advances such as the invention of the University (the word comes from Arabic), computing (they invented the Algorithm, mathematics (they invented Algebra) and chemistry (well they made the first primitive steps called in the west Alchemy).

They also realised that they should represent a value of nothing with a figure, which is 0. 0 is really a place holder, many mathematicians consider it not to be a number (try dividing 2 by 0).

This simple invention has allowed us to perform an interesting range of calculations. Because all this happened in the 9th century when Europeans were illiterate barbarians, Europeans often studied from Arabic texts or went to the middle east to study. As a result this knowledge, along with the lost Greek texts returned to west and helped us rebuild our civilisation, and we happily use it to make smart bombs and give them as presents back to the nice people of Bagdad.

2007-04-19 03:51:34 · answer #2 · answered by flingebunt 7 · 1 0

The ancient Egyptians are credited as being the first to invent the value of zero. They had a symbol for it too, then the Arabs took it and turned it into the zero we know today.

By the way, our numerical system 1, 2, 3... is Arabic in origin.

2007-04-19 05:41:50 · answer #3 · answered by Ariel 2 · 0 0

The original use of the zero was formed by the Babylonians. They used zero in the medial position to represent a blank spot for that individual set. The zero in betweeen negative and positive numbers wasn't invented until later when the Chinese invented negative numbers.

source: http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/biograph/biozero.htm

2007-04-19 03:54:51 · answer #4 · answered by Zax 3 · 0 0

Aryabhata ..is known to have inventanted zero . but zero was even used before that in india.

2007-04-19 03:52:41 · answer #5 · answered by a_m_del_in 2 · 1 0

Aryabhata .. the Indian mathematician from 5'th century AD.

2007-04-19 03:47:53 · answer #6 · answered by Nishit V 3 · 2 0

Indians
I think it is Aryabhatta.

2007-04-19 04:55:39 · answer #7 · answered by DJ 2 · 0 0

al gore

2007-04-19 03:42:00 · answer #8 · answered by Yoho 6 · 0 2

its Indians.

2007-04-19 07:46:50 · answer #9 · answered by Deranged Soul.. 2 · 0 0

simple, God

2007-04-19 03:38:16 · answer #10 · answered by naveed m 1 · 0 2

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