INVENTION OF ZERO

 INVENTION OF ZERO

The concept of zero has not always been around, however, the introduction of zero bought a lot of changes not only in math but also in the general life of people. Zero has so many different names, for example, ‘null’, ‘nil’, ‘0’ as a digit, ‘sunya’ in Sanskrit, and so on. It is fascinating how the origin of zero bought changed and now it is used as a prime digit in mathematics. Before learning about the modern zero, let’s learn about the origin of zero in India,

 

Origin of Zero in India

The origin of zero in India came from a well-known astronomer and mathematician of his time, Aryabhatta. The well-known scientist used zero as a placeholder number. In the 5th century, Aryabhatta introduced zero in the decimal number system and hence, introduced it in mathematics. After Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta described rules for zero in the 7th century. The most evident proof of the origin of zero in mathematics is mentioned in the oldest manuscript of India known as the ‘Bakshali manuscript’, zero was used as a dot in the book.