The Man Who Invented Zero

It's taken thousands of years for humans to decide what zero is, and also what zero isn't. It's a strange concept to think about what nothing really means in relation to other numbers, but giving zero meaning beyond a simple placeholder was one of the most important advances in mathematics. Indian mathematician and astronomer Brahmagupta was likely the first to codify the rules involving computation with zero -- and in his master work Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta, he delved into quadratic equations, calculating square roots, and rules for positive and negative numbers.

The remarkable thing is that the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta contained no mathematical notation. It was only prose, and Brahmagupta still managed to be the first to describe the solution to quadratic equations. But what about dividing 0 by 0?!

#maths #shorts #mathematics

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