Oldest use of zero symbol in Indian MS

[Duncan Head]

Oldest identified use of the ancestor of the modern zero symbol, not to be confused with other cultures' symbols for the same thing, of course. This "nothing" business gets complicated.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/sep/14/much-ado-about-nothing-ancient-indian-text-contains-earliest-zero-symbol

[Mark G]

I heard coverage on the radio this.morning too.

Interesting stuff

[Nick Harbud]

I reckoned there was nothing in it.

[Patrick Waterson]

 

There is of course a difference between zero and nothing.  Zero is an intermediate state between positive and negative.  Nothing is the absence of even zero.

[Andreas Johansson]

Unfortunately for that idea, the concept of zero rather predates that of negative numbers.

[Patrick Waterson]

But the status (as opposed to perception) of zero is not altered by the use of negative or even irrational numbers.  Its usage among humans may be adjusted or refined by their (re)discovery, but is not the core of mathematics the belief that numerical relationships are timelessly true and invariant whether or not they have yet been discovered and/or employed by humans?

[Andreas Johansson]

I'm not sure if you'd get a consensus about that among philosophers of mathematics. But there are definitely meaningful mathematical structures that have zero but no negative numbers.

[Patrick Waterson]

Indeed, although they are in the nature of things mathematical incomplete as they would anyway need substantive negative numbers to compute deductions, a deducted positive number being to all intents and purposes a temporary negative number.

[Erpingham]

A new development in the tale :

http://www.medievalists.net/2017/11/historians-challenge-oxfords-claim-worlds-oldest-zero/

[Jim Webster]

A new development in the tale :

http://www.medievalists.net/2017/11/historians-challenge-oxfords-claim-worlds-oldest-zero/

"The international team ends its article with a plea to Oxford University's Library that important and complex scholarly topics should be published through established academic channels involving peer-review, and not through sensationalizing press releases to the media."

That would be the end of civilisation as we know it