Re: what's your net worth?
- From: "Koolchicki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <john.kulczycki@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:52:16 -0800 (PST)
Pies de Arcilla wrote:
On Nov 17, 12:10 am, "Koolchi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
<john.kulczy...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Did you know if it was not for the arabs, we would not have zero to
kick around?
I believe it was the Hindus. I know they all look alike to a dumb
Polack like you.
Ummm.
"History
By the mid 2nd millennium BC, the Babylonians had a sophisticated
sexagesimal positional numeral system. The lack of a positional value
(or zero) was indicated by a space between sexagesimal numerals. By
300 BC a punctuation symbol (two slanted wedges) was co-opted as a
placeholder in the same Babylonian system. In a tablet unearthed at
Kish (dating from perhaps as far back as 700 BC), the scribe Bêl-bân-
aplu wrote his zeroes with three hooks, rather than two slanted wedges.
[3]
The Babylonian placeholder was not a true zero because it was not used
alone. Nor was it used at the end of a number. Thus numbers like 2 and
120 (2×60), 3 and 180 (3×60), 4 and 240 (4×60), et al., looked the
same because the larger numbers lacked a final sexagesimal
placeholder. Only context could differentiate them.
Records show that the ancient Greeks seemed unsure about the status of
zero as a number: they asked themselves "How can nothing be
something?", leading to philosophical and, by the Medieval period,
religious arguments about the nature and existence of zero and the
vacuum. The paradoxes of Zeno of Elea depend in large part on the
uncertain interpretation of zero.
Early use of something like zero by the Indian scholar Pingala (circa
5th-2nd century BC), implied at first glance by his use of binary
numbers, is only the modern binary representation using 0 and 1
applied to Pingala's binary system, which used short and long
syllables (the latter equal in length to two short syllables), making
it similar to Morse code.[4][5] Nevertheless, he and other Indian
scholars at the time used the Sanskrit word śūnya (the origin of the
word zero after a series of transliterations and a literal
translation) to refer to zero or void.[6]
The back of Stela C from Tres Zapotes, an Olmec archaeological
siteThis is the second oldest Long Count date yet discovered. The
numerals 7.16.6.16.18 translate to September 32 BC (Julian). The
glyphs surrounding the date are what is thought to be one of the few
surviving examples of Epi-Olmec script.
The back of Stela C from Tres Zapotes, an Olmec archaeological site
This is the second oldest Long Count date yet discovered. The numerals
7.16.6.16.18 translate to September 32 BC (Julian). The glyphs
surrounding the date are what is thought to be one of the few
surviving examples of Epi-Olmec script.
[edit] History of zero
The use of a blank on a counting board to represent 0 dated back in
India to 4th century BC[7]. The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar
developed in south-central Mexico required the use of zero as a place-
holder within its vigesimal (base-20) positional numeral system. A
shell glyph—Image:MAYA-g-num-0-inc-v1.svg—was used as a zero symbol
for these Long Count dates, the earliest of which (on Stela 2 at
Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas) has a date of 36 BC.[8] Since the eight
earliest Long Count dates appear outside the Maya homeland,[9] it is
assumed that the use of zero in the Americas predated the Maya and was
possibly the invention of the Olmecs. Indeed, many of the earliest
Long Count dates were found within the Olmec heartland, although the
fact that the Olmec civilization had come to an end by the 4th century
BC, several centuries before the earliest known Long Count dates,
argues against the zero being an Olmec discovery.
Although zero became an integral part of Maya numerals, it, of course,
did not influence Old World numeral systems.
By 130, Ptolemy, influenced by Hipparchus and the Babylonians, was
using a symbol for zero (a small circle with a long overbar) within a
sexagesimal numeral system otherwise using alphabetic Greek numerals.
Because it was used alone, not just as a placeholder, this Hellenistic
zero was perhaps the first documented use of a number zero in the Old
World. However, the positions were usually limited to the fractional
part of a number (called minutes, seconds, thirds, fourths, etc.)—they
were not used for the integral part of a number. In later Byzantine
manuscripts of his Syntaxis Mathematica (Almagest), the Hellenistic
zero had morphed into the Greek letter omicron (otherwise meaning 70).
Another zero was used in tables alongside Roman numerals by 525 (first
known use by Dionysius Exiguus), but as a word, nulla meaning nothing,
not as a symbol. When division produced zero as a remainder, nihil,
also meaning nothing, was used. These medieval zeros were used by all
future medieval computists (calculators of Easter). An isolated use of
their initial, N, was used in a table of Roman numerals by Bede or a
colleague about 725, a zero symbol.
In 498 AD, Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata stated that
"Sthanam sthanam dasa gunam" or place to place in ten times in value,
which may be the origin of the modern decimal based place value
notation.[10]
The oldest known text to use zero is the Jain text from India entitled
the Lokavibhaaga, dated 458 AD.[11] it was first introduced to the
world centuries later by Al-Khwarizmi, a Persian mathematician,
astronomer and geographer[citation needed]. He was the founder of
several branches and basic concepts of mathematics. In the words of
Philip Hitti, Al Khawarizmi's contribution to mathematics influenced
mathematical thought to a greater extent. His work on algebra
initiated the subject in a systematic form and also developed it to
the extent of giving analytical solutions of linear and quadratic
equations, which established him as the founder of Algebra. The very
name Algebra has been derived from his famous book Al-Jabr wa-al-
Muqabilah.
His arithmetic synthesized Greek and Hindu knowledge and also
contained his own contribution of fundamental importance to
mathematics and science. Thus, he explained the use of zero, a numeral
of fundamental importance developed by the Indians. And 'algorithm' or
'algorizm' is named after him.
The first apparent appearance of a symbol for zero appears in 876 in
India on a stone tablet in Gwalior. Documents on copper plates, with
the same small o in them, dated back as far as the sixth century AD,
abound.[12]
[edit] "
Thing is, the Arabs introduced the concept to Europeans. India had
very little contact with the European world at that time.
All Polacks are the same to you.
.
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