What’s the smallest number? One, right? Well, actually, it’s zero. Let’s zero in on zero, so you can say, “I just learned something about nothing!”,Much Ado about… Nothing!,What’s the smallest number? One, right? Well, actually, it’s zero. Let’s zero in on zero, so you can say, “I just learned something about nothing!”
W hat’s the smallest number? One right? Well actually it’s zero. The absence of numbers. It’s a funny concept that a simple oval digit — which just to confuse matters looks exactly like a letter of the alphabet and means nothing.
Let’s zero in on this unusual number and hopefully discover something new and even if you do read something new you can still say “I just learned something about nothing!”
In the old days even though numerical systems were in place zero just didn’t exist. Nobody could explain it. It was just too complicated.
You know how sometimes you need a zero in the middle of a number? Say 208? Some people would just leave a space and keep going but that started getting confusing… Suddenly 208 didn’t look so different from 2008 (where there were two spaces). Eventually the Babylonians developed a symbol for zero but only within a different number not in its own place.
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