Origin of the Number Zero Essay -- systems, number, cultures, symbols

As ancient numerical systems came to be and evolved over time, so did the take energy. nonentity did not seem to be an obvious start to the natural amount to the mathematicians who pioneered the different number systems of the past. Having a symbol that meant basically nothing appeared in a few refinings but usually long after the initial creation of the cultures number system and sometimes was a controversial idea. (Textbook)The delay in adding zero to the number systems was most belike because in most cultures the earliest number systems were additive. This meant that they had symbols to establish certain add up and merely added them all together to achieve the desired number. The symbols could be position in both localize. This type of system did not require a symbol to represent zero in order to make any other numbers. Such systems are limited and eventually evolved into systems where the position of the symbols in a number changed its meaning. These positiona l systems are part of what created a acquire for a place holder symbol, which later would become the number zero. (Textbook, scientificamerican.com article)For example, the Egyptians Hieroglyphic number system was additive and had no zero symbol. It dated back as far is 3500 B.C. and is one of the earliest know number systems. This system used pictures to represent the numbers 1, 10, 100, 1000, etc. Since order did not matter, the Egyptians did not even need a symbol to represent an empty space. Eventually the Egyptians created their hieratic system. The Hieratic was a more baffling system with more symbols (1-10, 20, 30, etc.) but still did not employ a symbol to represent zero as a number. There is say that Egyptians used their symbol for good ... ... small circle was used for the number zero. (Kaplan)Independently, the Mayans created multiple symbols for the number zero in their vigesimal (base 20) number system. The Mayan culture was at its peak from 300 B.C. to 900 A.D. and during this time there are some examples of glyphs used to represent zero. The most common was a stylized shell. Others include faces, animals, flowers, and different types of shells. (Kaplan)The number zero now has many uses besides live onence the smallest natural number. It is used in set theory, logic (0 is used as the truth value for false), category theory, etc. Its position as the blood line in graphs and number lines is essential to bridge the gap between shun and positive numbers. It is obvious that without it mathematics as we know it would not exist and though its creation seemed to have been delayed it was inevitable.