The story of zero

We come across the numeral “0” when we were a child. Yet few of us know the number was not invented as late as the fifth century and there is a lot of uncertainty as to this exact date (depending on the definition of invention). Although the philosophy of nothingness probably originated from Indian Buddhism, the introduction of “zero” into our number system was thought to come from the middle east in the seventh century and speculation has it that “zero” was then “imported” into Europe by Italian mathematician Fibonacci in the twelve century.

Here are some of the interesting properties of zero. Zero is the only integer between -1 and 1. It is neither a positive nor a negative number. It is not an odd number, but not a even number either. Whether it belongs to the class of natural number is a subject of some debate. The square root, square, cube of zero is itself (so is zero to the power n). the formular a x 0 = 0 has infinite solution for a.

So, it appears that the story of a simple number is not all that simple.