The History of Zero

Zero might look like nothing, but it is one of the most important numbers ever invented. Before zero, math was much harder. It took people thousands of years to come up with the idea of a number that means none.

Life Before Zero

Long ago, people did not have a zero. Ancient Romans used letters for numbers, like V for 5 and X for 10. They had no symbol for nothing. This made big numbers very confusing to write and calculate.

Without zero, there is no way to write numbers like 10, 100, or 1,000. Place value, where a digit's position matters, needs zero to work.

Who Invented Zero?

Mathematicians in ancient India were among the first to use zero as a real number around the 600s. A mathematician named Brahmagupta wrote rules for adding, subtracting, and multiplying with zero.

The idea spread to the Arab world and then to Europe. At first, some Europeans were scared of zero. It took hundreds of years before everyone accepted it.

Fun Facts

• The word zero comes from the Arabic word sifr, which also gave us the word cipher.
• The ancient Maya in Central America independently invented zero around the same time as India.
• Zero is the only number that is neither positive nor negative.

Did You Know?

You cannot divide any number by zero. If you try it on a calculator, you get an error message! Mathematicians say dividing by zero is undefined.