Why the number 0 was banned for 1500 years

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Most of the material from this video was from the book Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife.

3 Paradoxes the Gave Us Calculus

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0:00 Intro
0:46 The Time Before Zero
2:00 Humans Invent Zero
5:40 Zero's Exile
9:44 Zero's Reincarnation
11:05 Zero's Reign

*A big thank you to my AMAZING PATRONS!*

Creator - Jade Tan-Holmes
Script - Zoe Cocchiaro
Cinematography - Simon Mackenzie
Animations - Tom Groenestyn
Music - epidemic sound

[ramachokkalingam]

Pingala (c. 3rd/2nd century BC[32]), a Sanskrit prosody scholar, [33] used binary numbers in the form of short and long syllables (the latter equal in length to two short syllables), a notation similar to Morse code.[34] Pingala used the Sanskrit word śūnya explicitly to refer to zero

[earthling_parth]

I know zero is very important in mathematics but didn't know that Pythagoras and Fibonacci were both involved along with the Indians in such rich history and drama. Thanks as always Jade!

[DaGlitchMaster]

I love the effort you put into your videos by making all those props. Hope you keep doing it!

[Eric-zowo]

0:07: 🔢 The concept of zero didn't exist for 1, 500 years and caused controversy when it was invented.
3:48: ! The Babylonians invented the symbol for zero as a placeholder to distinguish between numbers.
7:42: 🔢 The Greeks rejected zero in their mathematical system due to its association with non-existence and the denial of God.
10:08: 🧮 The concept of zero in mathematics originated in ancient India and played a crucial role in the development of modern algebra.
13:13: 🤔 The video explores the significance of zero in mathematics and how different cultures' beliefs influenced its invention or discovery.
Recap by Tammy AI

[lashismathschannel]

Brilliant stuff. I really must commend you on the effort you've put into this video and for condensing the history of zero to 16 mins! Keep up the amazing work!

[joshwi]

I can't believe they banned it for 15 years

[aakhthuu]

The number zero must have been invented immediately after the first maths exam

[swicked]

Actually it would be interesting to hear you cover all the math of mesopotamia.

[immortalsofar]

Back in the C64 days, the simplest way of dividing in assembler was to repeatedly subtract the divisor until it was less than the numerator. The number of subtractions was the answer and the remaining numerator was the remainder. If the divisor was zero, you'd end up in a never-ending loop as the numerator never decreased.
Not sure if this was actually "infinity" since infinity is where parallel lines meet and recurring results converge but zero would actually never converge like that. I think.

[R.F.]

13:22 "So next time you're in this situation [$0.00 in the bank], just think 'Maybe zero isn't so bad after all'." -- Ah, the classic category/instance confusion, lol.

[MariusPartenie]

That bit with the baby at 1:34 caught me off-guard. It was very funny.

[MedlifeCrisis]

Welcome to all the Indian commenters who will be here in 3, 2, 1…zero

[davidh.]

Great video as always Jade! You are so very good at explaining things and keeping it interesting. You have a knack of keeping it flowing ... like finishing explaining a point and then saying something like "there's just one problem". Like the cliffhanger between chapters. And your explanations are so clear. You're a natural teacher! 😊

[grcnairy]

I liked this video very much mainly for its open approach. But I have explained in my book that zero was probably discovered around 200 BCE. I do not think it had to be invented; because it was all along there, but it just did not occur to any till that day. The earliest reference to zero is found in the book called "Chanda Sastra" 4.32. It is created by Sage Pingalacharya around 200 BCE. The reference in that goes like this in Sanskrit. “Gaayathre shadsankhyaamardhe apaneethe dvayanke avasishtasthrayastheshu roopamapaneeya dvayankaadha: soonyam sthaapyam” Meaning: In gayatri chandas, one pada has six letters. When this number is made half, it becomes three. Remove one from three and make it half to get one. Remove one from it, thus gets the 'Soonya' (zero). Clear evidence for the existence of definite rules for calculations using zero appears many years later in the year in 1029 CE, in 'Siddhantha Sekhara' authored by Sripati, though it might have been in existence earlier. It says “Vikaaramaayaanthi dhanarunakhaani na soonya samyoga viyogathasthu soonyaaddhi suddham swamrunam kshayam swam vadhaadinaa kham khaharam vibhakthaa”. Meaning: Nothing happens (to the number) when a positive or negative number is added with zero. When +ve and -ve numbers are subtracted from zero, the +ve number becomes negative and -ve number becomes +ve. When multiplied with zero, the values of both +ve and -ve numbers become zero, when divided by zero, it becomes infinity ('khahara'). The place value of numbers seems to have been known around 650-700 CE. “Yathaa ekarekhaa sathasthaane satham dasasthane dasaiam chaikasthaane yathaa cha ekathvepi sthree mathaa cha uchyathe duhithaa svasaa cha ithi” (Sankaracharya, in 'Vyasa Bhashaya' to 'Yoga Sutra' - 650 CE). Meaning: In the unit place the digit has the same value, in 10th place, 10 times the value and in 100th place 100 times the value, given.
Also “Yathaachaikaapi rekha sthaananyathvena nivisamaanaika dasa satha sahasraadi sabda prathyaya bhedhamanubhavathi” ('Sankaracharya', 'Vedanta Sutra Bhashaya II.2.17 - CE 700) Meaning: One and the same numerical sign when occupying different places is conceived as measuring 1, 10, 100, 1000 etc.
May refer the book "The Hidden Messages in Indian Scriptures" (Chapter 13) ASIN: B07XL58DPH.

[MrMirville]

Zero was never banned from Western thought. The Greeks opted for the use of 27 greek letters to represent numbers from 1 to 999 and they already used a small circle to indicate that a 3-digit column was empty. The Romans used the minus sign, normally used to represent negative numbers (debts essentially) without any figures to mean zero.

[RuntotheMovies]

Your excitement and love for mathematics and science is intoxicating. I wish you had existed when I was a kid. Maybe I wouldn't have failed math in school so much. :)

[anujarora]

4:14 The Babylonian placeholder was not 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) looked the same, because the larger numbers lacked a final sexagesimal placeholder. Only context could differentiate them.

[mauricereeves]

Great video, and fun to see you out in the field doing a little archaeology! Well done Indiana Jade.

[davidtipton]

This was a very good look at the history of Zero! Love your videos, please keep going!

[commentnahipadhaikar]

In India, Zero is called Shunya.

Indians were ofcourse familiar with it as it is mentioned even in Vedas, and it became one of the most important thing in Indian philosophies, from Vendanta to Mahayana Buddhism.

Brahman is said to be ultimate reality who is full in itself, but it is also shunya at the same time.

There is verse in Isha Upanishad "That is perfect, this is perfect, what is taken from perfect is perfect and what remains after taking it out is also perfect"

It was Aryabhatta who invented symbol for 0 and other numbers, which were taken by Arabic traders and are Known as Arabic numerals instead in the west.
(Aryabhatta was also the person who first said that earth rotates on its axis and he calculated accurate circumference of the earth, he have done some other cool stuffs also)


Brahmagupta introduced concept of negative numbers.
0 is necessarily not nothing but where both opposite qualities combine.
Like if there is elevation of ground, that will be positive and if there there is depression, it is negative, the place where the ground neutralises is the 0.
That is how concept of negative numbers took place.

Brahmagupta was also the first person who proved that 0 divided by 0 is infinity.
He also have done some other cool stuff.