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India's contributions to mathematics:
It should come as no surprise that the first recorded use of the number zero, recently discovered to be made as early as the 3rd or 4th century, happened in India. Mathematics on the Indian subcontinent has a rich history going back over 3,000 years and thrived for centuries before similar advances were made in Europe, with its influence meanwhile spreading to China and the Middle East.
As well as giving us the concept of zero, Indian mathematicians made seminal contributions to the study of trigonometry, algebra, arithmetic and negative numbers among other areas. Perhaps most significantly, the decimal system that we still employ worldwide today was first seen in India.
With such a significant technical lead, how did they fall behind?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @10:30PM (5 children)
What a fucked article.
It has this in it
but shortly after that it contradicts itself
So, no, Indian mathematicians should not be credited with "giving us the concept of zero" when earlier cultures had the concept of zero well before then Indian mathematicians did.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @10:57PM (3 children)
Placeholder zero is different from a zero in integer line. The ancient Sumerians knew to use zero as place holder, but the ancient Indians came up with the zero as ... zero, empty, null. How do you think they came up with Siddartha budda?
I don't think they came up with negative numbers, though.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday September 22 2017, @11:47PM (2 children)
Agreed - the number zero is a revolutionary mathematical concept, one which actually saw significant resistance to its adoption (how can *nothing* be a value?), but without which modern mathematics would not be possible.
In comparison there's nothing special about a placeholder - it's just a typographic convention that simplifies position-based numerical representations.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @05:58AM (1 child)
Zero is not null, guys. Elementary set theory... I don't think the Indians gave us that tho ;)
{}
{0}
{0,{0}}
etc.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday September 26 2017, @06:44PM
Who suggested it was? But set theory, much less null, is not particularly relevant to bookkeeping, geometry, or any of the applied maths that existed at the time.
Mathematics grew out of counting, and while it makes perfect sense to have three apples, eat one and have two apples, eat one and have one apple... it makes far less sense to eat that and say you now have zero apples. At that point you have nothing, assigning a number to the amount of apples you still have is a very strange concept. Even negative numbers were developed several centuries beforehand.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday September 23 2017, @01:56AM
#1 is per
#2 is poo
#0 is squatting over a hole waiting to do #1 or #2
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --