The Zero Story
In this episode of It’s A Math Math Math World, Divakaran and Shraddha host you through the evolution of zero through the ages.
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Remember that dreaded figure your teacher scrawled on the margin of your math test paper? It’s the hero of this episode. Our much-villainised zero has a fascinating history.
The Babylonians, as we discovered in Episode 1, may have arrived at a placeholder for zero, but the actual symbol did not enter convention until the 7th century in the Indian subcontinent. It later became a foundational element of mathematical concepts during the Islamic Golden Age (the word algebra has Arabic roots). Later, it was adopted in Europe by Renaissance mathematicians.
Long story short: Zero has come full circle.
In this episode, Divakaran and Shraddha host you through the evolution of zero through the ages.
Credits:
Akshay Ramuhalli, Bijoy Venugopal, Bruce Lee Mani, Narayan Krishnaswamy, Prashant Vasudevan, Sananda Dasgupta, Seema Seth, Shraddha Gautam, Supriya Joshi and Velu Shankar
Further reading:
Book | Physics for Entertainment by Yakov Perelman
Read online at OpenLibrary.org | Full text at Archive.org
Book | Charles Seife: ZERO — THE BIOGRAPHY OF A DANGEROUS IDEA
Amazon India | YouTube — Full Audio Transcript