Practically if you see the difference between say 12, 102 and 1002 is only; ZERO!
That is also the contribution of Bharat to the world! ZERO!
A thing which we take for granted now was so confusing in the past till we made the confusion disappear like it never existed!
Now can you imagine how it would have been when there was no term or even the number zero!?
Some people managed without zero by using placeholder concepts like spaces or symbols (Babylonian wedges, Mayan shells) to show an empty value in positional systems!
People in ancient Egypt & the Greeks used to use distinct symbols for different powers of ten (e.g., symbol for 9, another for 90, another for 900)!
Babylonians apparently used a positional system but initially left a blank space for absence, later adding wedges, though it wasn’t a true number.
The ancient Romans relied on the absence of a symbol in a position (like ‘I’ for 1, ‘V’ for 5) and avoided complex math by using abacuses!
The Mesoamericans developed a base-20 system with a shell-like glyph for zero as a placeholder in their calendar!
Around AD 650, the use of the number was common in Indian mathematics
Indian mathematicians such as Brahmagupta, Mahavira, and Bhaskara used
zero in mathematical operations!
Brahmagupta was the first to treat zero as a number in its own right, defining rules like \(0+0=0\), \(a+0=a\), \(a-0=a\), \(a\times 0=0\), and even discussing division by zero in the 7th century.
The idea of “emptiness” or Shunya in Indian philosophy provided a conceptual framework for understanding nothingness as something significant.
The Bakhshali Manuscript may be the first documented evidence of zero used for mathematical purposes!
So it was in ancient India that the mathematicians first treated zero (from “sunyata” – nothingness) as a number, establishing rules for operations like addition and subtraction!
Arabic scholars like Al-Khwarizmi adopted this system (Hindu-Arabic numerals) and made it central to algorithms, spreading it through their texts.
Remember that starting from a kid in a nursery school to the most complex computers in the world; everyone needs ZERO!
The impact of true zero allowed for complex equations and concepts like limits, making modern science and engineering possible!
In fact it is the core of the modern computing as the binary system (0s and 1s) is the foundation of all digital technology!
So when next time even if someone says that your contribution to a project or work is actually ZERO; you can still take some pride in that!
Then again there is one who can never be zero! It’s our own Rajnikant!
Now zero in on the bed and sleep!
Shub ratri!
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