h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm probably repeating similar arguments from earlier in this thread but the concept of zero has always fascinated me.

To say argue whether zero was invented or discovered is to argue whether mathematics was invented or discovered. This is as much a philosphical concept as any other metaphysical question discussing whether existence is created by thought or thought created by existence. Descartes drove himself up the wall trying to solve this one before the legendary cop-out conclusion of "I think therefore I am".

Back to zero though, the existence of zero itself is a logical paradox. The existence of the *concept* of zero, though, stands up to greater reasoning, yet still presents the problem of where the concept comes from, seeing as there is no evidence of its existence.

Consider:

- For something to exist, it must have evidence of doing so.
- For something to have evidence of existence it must extend in a least one dimension.
- Zero, by definition, is the absence of extension in any dimension.
- Therefore zero is the opposite of existence.
- However, the fact that I can think of zero entails that it does exist as a concept.
- The paradox - there can be no evidence with which to create the concept of something which must, by definition, have no evidence.

One could counter from here that the use of negative evidence supports the claim for the existence of zero; i.e. x=-y, in that x represents zero and y represents anything that exists either as a whole or a constituent part (e.g. zero is equal to the lack of a table/window/quark/planet). The problem here is that reasoning based purely on negatives can never have a reference point from which one can draw a conclusion. Put simply, it cannot prove the existence of something, only that something is not anything else.

So, I would suggest that zero itself never actually existed, and never will do. The concept of zero, though, is a creation of intelligence. Ths is based on the assumption that concept=thought and that thoughts are creations of sentient intelligence. Although even this assumption has been disputed by many philosophers since Plato.

The Muslims claim it.

And they want it back.

The muslims make many claims.

Not all of them are true.

RF

As I understood it, Mathematics did not develop until zero was created.

The pecieved notion comes from here:

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Projects/Pearce/Chapters/Ch7.html

No-one is certain, but all Mathematical equations devoloped from point zero.

Our Society relies on Zero, and all our current Society theories relies on that point.

I seem to recall that zero to any power is zero. The #^0 =1 rule applies probably only to non-zero numbers.

This sort of math theory problem has always seemed a bit shady. When you square a number the answer can be represented in the real world; three rows of three pennies. Even contemplating multiplying a number by itself zero times seems an excersize in active non-action, a contradiction.

I think this is the theoretical world of math doing its best to describe the non-finite world. One apple is 1, but is at the same time billions of cells, or 1/500 th of an apple tree. There is never one equation that fully describes it.

Zero to any power is zero, except zero to the power of zero, which is undefined. It's easy to see why:

Anything to the power of 0 is the number divided by itself, which must equal 1. So we have:

5^0 = 1
4^0 = 1
3^0 = 1
2^0 = 1
1^0 = 1
0^0 = ?

But 0 to the power of anything is 0. So we have:

0^5 = 0
0^4 = 0
0^3 = 0
0^2 = 0
0^1 = 0
0^0 = ?

By the first rule, it should be 1. By the second rule, it should be 0. It is impossible to define a value of 0^0 that makes any sense. So mathematicians just leave it undefined. 0^0 does not have a definition.

It seems that due to this sort of behavior that zero exhibits, It must have been invented rather than discovered, as discovering something with unknown traits is less discovering than theorizing.

But then, I think all numbers were invented.

So, what, I'm right?!?

Zero was invented by the first person to eat a bowl of Cherrio's?

Ok, well i guess ill see ya'll on the 'plural singularities of the big bangs' page...