Understanding Zero - A Cultural Breakthrough

Brahmagupta - Bing Image

A famous Indian mathematician/astronomer's discovery of the importance of the mathematical concept "zero" revolutionized the way we use mathematics today.

In the television programme The Story of Maths, presenter, Marcus du Sautoy says that Brahmagupta’s discovery was “the pivot on which human life depends.

"As the cultures of Rome, Greece and Mesopotamia fell into decline, so the culture and learning of India came into its own.

Astronomer and mathematician, Brahmagupta, lived in Northwest India in the seventh century and what he discovered about “zero” is still taught all over the world today. It was Brahmagupta who helped us to make sense of the new and exciting math term – zero - transforming it from a mere empty space, like a hole left in the sand when a stone is removed, and into a term that made sense in its own right.

The Philosophical Connection

Zero was already important in Indian culture, standing as it did, for nothingness and therefore for the void and for eternity. In Indian religions, nothingness is humanity’s ultimate goal.

The Indian word for zero is “shunya” because it represents the void. Brahmagupta is claimed to be the first person to use this term.

A Practical Example

We all understand:

• 1 + 0 = 1
• 1 - 0 = 1
• 1 x 0 = 0

But, as Brahmagupta realized, there was a problem, the problem of 1 ÷ 0. Brahmagupta's research began to make sense of even this problematic division sum. It was simple - smaller fractions simply produced more pieces - and continued producing them. Therefore, any division into smaller fractions gives us a higher figure, but representing numbers of pieces.

Imagine you have a piece of fruit, standing for one whole one. You divide it in half. Now you have two pieces of fruit. Divide by 3 / 5 / 9 / 20 and you have 3 / 5 / 9 / 20 pieces respectively. You can continue in this way, into infinity.

Divide a whole by zero and you have infinite numbers of pieces.

A Mathematical Revolution

Brahmagupta’s most famous work was the Brahmasphuta siddhanta produced in 628. No negative numbers appeared in this work. It’s claimed that zero was actually first introduced to the world in his work Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. This great thinker, it is claimed, was both competitive and derisive of his rivals, but the disputes occurred mainly in relation to the application of mathematical theory to the physical world and not in mathematics itself.

Understanding calculus with zero has helped revolutionize mathematical thought and represents a great gift to the world.

Source:

The Story of Maths: The Genius of the East presented by Marcus du Sautoy, BBC4 Meridian, 19.07.2011.