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Short video about history of number 0

Deleted User

Music is a bit annoying, but there are only a few videos with any history (in english).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-oxsEknlIc

The comments are interesting for me as well.

Parents

  • It's curious. It's not immediately obvious in everyday life why you need a number to show you don't have something.

    If someone asks how many cars you have, you'd say 1 or 2, or I don't have a car.

    Likewise if you have 5 biscuits and you sell 5, you then don't have any to sell. 

    You don't naturally think of absence as having a zero quantity.

    It is a mental twist as having implies possession, but you possess nothing. I think it is because language and maths are different, they probably use different parts of the brain.

    (Sorry if this is what the video says, I can't see it at the moment.)

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  • It's curious. It's not immediately obvious in everyday life why you need a number to show you don't have something.

    If someone asks how many cars you have, you'd say 1 or 2, or I don't have a car.

    Likewise if you have 5 biscuits and you sell 5, you then don't have any to sell. 

    You don't naturally think of absence as having a zero quantity.

    It is a mental twist as having implies possession, but you possess nothing. I think it is because language and maths are different, they probably use different parts of the brain.

    (Sorry if this is what the video says, I can't see it at the moment.)

Children