Presentation on Importance of Zero for Classes V-VII

1. ZERO

2. Focus Of Presentation
 The History of Zero
Before Zero
Birth of Zero
 Importance of Zero
In Mathematics
In Other Fields

3. Life Without Zero
 Can you imagine mathematics without
zero?
Numbers are used to count creatures or objects
 40 cows in the field
 Six loaves of bread at the marketplace
 Counting zero sheep or loaves of bread does not
make much sense
 Zero was just not needed!

4. Before Zero
 Numbers were used for thousands of
years before they used zero
 Historical records show different path
towards the concept
 Zero made appearances only to vanish again
 Mathematicians were searching for it ,yet did
not recognize its fundamental significance

5. Egyptians
 Egyptian hieroglyphics
were used as early as
3500 B.C.E.
 Egypt did not have or
need a zero.
 Even without zero,
Egyptians became
masters of
mathematics.

6. Greeks
 The Greeks brought mathematics to its
highest point in ancient times.
 Around 500 BC, the Greeks developed a
newer more sophisticated system
This way avoided repeated letters

7. Romans
 The Romans also had
a number system
 It was a step back from
the less sophisticated
Egyptian system.
 The Roman 87,
LXXXVII, requires
seven symbols, with
several repeats

8. Still…
 The Egyptian, Greek and Roman number
systems had no zeros
 Even though the Greek number system
was more sophisticated than the Egyptian
and Greek, it was not the most advanced.

9. Babylonians
 2500 B.C.E., the Babylonians used a system of
two symbols
 Base 60
 They sometimes used a space to represent an
empty position.
 By about 200 C.E., they used a pair of small
triangles to represent an empty position.
 Babylonians never actually invented a zero, they
made an important first step!

10. Babylonians

11. Birth of Zero
 In the history of culture the
discovery of zero will always
stand out as one of the greatest
single achievements of the
human race.
-Tobias Danzig
 Without zero we would
lack
 Calculus, financial
accounting, the ability
to make arithmetic
computations quickly
and computers!

12. India
 Hindu culture had a positional number
system in base ten
They used a dot to represent an empty place
 Sunya which meant “empty” was the name for this
dot
At this point, the early zero was a placeholder
and an aid in computation
 By 500 C.E., the Hindus use a small circle
to represent Zero!
This circle was recognized as a numeral

13. Hindu- Arabic Numerals
 Arabic people recognized the value of the
Hindu system
 They adapted the numerals and computation
 Then spread the ideas in their travels
 The zero was named with the Arabic word
sifz
The actual word “zero” came from Italy

14. Fear of Zero!
 Europeans resisted Hindu-Arabic
numerals
 It seemed strange
 The numerals, including zero, were not
accepted
Florence, Italy, passed a law prohibiting the use
of the numerals
 0 could be changed to look like 6 or 9
 Slowly, the numbers became accepted
1500s

15. Use of Zero
 By 130 AD Ptolemy was using a symbol
for Zero.
 It was used alone and hence was the first
documented use of the number zero in the
old world.
 The Oldest known text to use Zero in the
decimal place value system was the Jain
text dated 458AD

16. Spreading The News
 Leonardo of Pisa,
known as Fibonacci
 Born to a merchant
family living in North
Africa
 Learned Hindu-Arabic
numerals from his
Arabic tutors
 He brought the news of
zero and new
computational methods
to Europe in his book

17. Importance of Zero
 It plays a central role
in math.
 As a additive identity
in integers ,real nos.
and other algebraic
structures
 As a place holder in
the place value system.
It has been called a
natural no.and has a
special role in
measuring of physical
quantities.

18. In the real-number system,
0 is the only number that is neither negative
nor positive.
It represents the boundary between the
negative and the positive numbers.
This property makes 0 the natural starting
point, or origin, on many scales, as on the
coordinate axes and on thermometers.

19. Zero Is A Special Number
 If we add 0 to any number, the sum is the
original number
 Same is true for subtraction
 If you multiply any number by 0, the product is
0
 If you raise any nonzero number to the power
of 0, the resulting number is 1
 If you divide 0 by any nonzero, the quotient is 0
 Any number divided by 0 is undefined

20. Zero is…..
 It is the number that separates positive
numbers from negative numbers
 It is a natural number
 It is even
 It is the integer that precedes one
 Zero must sit in its rightful place on the
number line, before on and after negative
one

21. YET….
 zero sits at the end of the computer key
board
 At the bottom of the telephone!
 Because we always start counting with
one!

22. Resources
 Anthony, Glenda, and Margaret Walshaw. “Zero: A
“None” Number?” Teaching Children Mathematics.
August 2004
 Humes, Alexander. Zero to Lazy Eight, The
Romance of Numbers. Simon and Shuster. New York,
New York, 1993.
 Ifrah, Grorges. The Universal History of Numbers.
John Wiley and sons, Inc. New York, New York, 2006.
 O’Connor, JJ and E F Robertson. “History Topic: A
history of Zero,” MacTutor History of Mathematics.
Noverber 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-
andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Zero.html

23. Resources
 Seife, Charles. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous
Idea. Penguin Group Penugin Putnam Inc. New York,
New York, 2000.
 Wallin, Nils-Bertil. “The History of Zero, How was Zero
Discovered?” Yale Global, 19 November, 2002.
 Wilson, Patricia S. “Zero: A Special Case.”
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. 6 no 5 300-
3, 308-9 Jan 2001.
 “O” Wikipedia, May 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_%28number%29

24. This Presentation can be
used for Classes V TO
VII
for Maths Activities