As the New Year celebrations die down, it's my entire pleasure to tell you a very fascinating story - a story about nothing.
I recently learned that the number zero, as we know it, was forbidden for more than 1,500 years. And the more I thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. Because how could a number that literally means "nothing" gain enough relevance to be forbidden? Hasn't zero always been around?
On the surface, it sounded unbelievable. Just stop for a second and try to imagine a world without zero. It would be really hard to! Primarily because we're so used to seeing zero (especially in our account balances) that it has hard to imagine a world without it. This Ponder is a story of zero's rise from obscurity to relevance.
Now, in ancient times, many civilizations used counting systems that did not have a symbol for zero. This made it difficult to perform certain mathematical operations and to express certain concepts, such as the concept of "nothing" or the concept of "infinity."
It made sense because our cave forefathers didn't necessarily need a zero. They were most probably limited to counting things they had, so there was no point in counting what they didn't have. You either had 10 cows, and 20 kids, or you didn't.
With time though, humans began to realize the importance of having a symbol for zero. They saw that it could be used to represent the absence of value and to perform various mathematical operations, such as addition, subtraction, and division. With the advent of zero, mathematics could also veer into previously uncharted territory.
For example, let's take the easy field of division. Prior to the introduction of zero, it was outright impossible to represent numbers between whole numbers, which made it difficult to perform division accurately. How can you divide properly if you can't even represent half (0.5)? The use of zero as a placeholder made it possible to represent fraction and decimal numbers and to perform division with greater precision.
Butttt, it gets interesting! After the advent of Christianity, religious leaders in Europe made a fascinating argument. They argued that since God is in everything that exists, anything that represents nothing must be satanic - yes. And in an attempt to save humanity from the devil, they banished zero from existence.
The more I read about the history of zero, the more I asked: How can the concept of something that literally means nothing cause so much drama and controversy?!
This drama, thankfully, didn't last for long and at a point in history, the deficiency caused by the lack of zero could not be ignored. The Babylonians were one of the first civilizations in recorded history to acknowledge its existence. They were known to use a space to represent the absence of a value. Then apparently, the ancient Mayans learnt to use a shell-like symbol to illustrate the concept of "emptiness." - thus zero.
A lot more happened as the centuries passed, but the use of zero spread to other parts of the world, and it has eventually become an integral part of the modern number system. Today, we use zero every day in our calculations, and it is hard to imagine life without it. Without zero, modern mathematics breaks down! Just look at your bank account balance for some context.
Last year, I shared the story of Newton and Leibniz and how they independently discovered calculus as we know it. As we learnt, calculus would have still been developed even if one of them was reluctant to pursue their curiosity.
This year, my message is simple! Continue to explore, and let the story of Zero's rise from zero to hero inspire you. Strive to question the gaps in your knowledge and seek out new ways of solving problems and tackling challenges. Because the key to the challenges you are facing may lie in the zero you're rejecting.
