Fans of Schoolhouse Rock may know it as “My Hero Zero“, but do you know the how the mathematical concept arose? An animated video from The Royal Institution tells the story of how we got something from nothing.
Discussion
5 Thoughts on "A History of Nothing"
I share the fascination with zero, especially with the notion that one can hold the concept of something in one’s mind without a physical manifestation (zero elephants), an imaginary concept (a cross between a zebra and elephant — a zelephant?), or whether a paper published in a peer reviewed journal is really published if it was reviewed by zero reviewers (aka F1000Research).
For those interested in further exploring this topic, I highly recommend reading Charles Seife’s “Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea”. A real treat.
As a non-mathematician I’m puzzled that anyone would spend time trying to divide by zero. This simply means that the number is not divided by anything, so it remains the same. If I am missing something I hope someone will point it out!