4 ms·
I like to imagine the situation of a tax collector in ancient Mesopotamia, going around and asking the farmers how many animals they have. If the farmer has 5
by madmoose 4y ago
I like to imagine the situation of a tax collector in ancient Mesopotamia, going around and asking the farmers how many animals they have.
If the farmer has 5 cows, they have a number of cows that you can put in a form on a clay tablet.
If the farmer has no goats, they don't have "a number of goats", they have no goats to count. Writing a number on the tax form doesn't make sense.
If numbers are only used to count actual things in the real world, zero is a very odd concept.
We realized later that having "a number" to represent "none" simplifies many things and rids us having to deal with special cases. And if we teach it to children early enough it isn't too confusing.
- dr_dshiv 4y agoYes, but when you have a set of goods to proportion out and you are complete, then there is a zero. So it may be quite common. The Egyptians indicated a concept like zero with the NFR sign, for perfect. That’s the one with a circle and a cross on top. But, no decimal placeholder system, like described in the article. http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/Ancient-Africa/mad_ancient_egypt_zero.html http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/Ancient-Africa/mad_ancient_e...