Yet an other article from Shivranjani, Mayo College Girls' School. Enjoy!!!!!
THE BIG FAT ZERO!
We all know our India is a very interesting country. Its full of diverse people , but either way they are all very warm-hearted. As we know we Indians (including us!) are very selfish when it comes to spending our money and are very close fisted. Here's the thing about being close-fisted, our close-fistedness changed the world. See you may be there thinking: 'Well how did it change the world?' Well let me tell you how, because our close-fistedness actually benefited everybody. We're so dedicated to being so selfish for so long, that Indian people actually created the number zero. You know how much dedication that took? That means, back in the day some Indian guy was looking at the numeric system. "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. None of those are the amounts I want to pay". Then his friend came along and drew a circle. "What's that?" Nothing. "What's inside of it?" Nothing. "What's its value?" Nothing... "It's beautiful." We shall call it jeero. Take it and go.
This was on the lighter side of my explanation, but actually the zero was invented in India and was called “pingala”. Now it is known in many parts of the world, naught or nil, zilch or zip etc. The zero was invented in India in around (circa 5th-2nd century BC). So basically, one fine day a man walked through the door and drew a mere circle, but don’t judge this strange circle by the simple look of it, because this circle can change million to just a one! This intelligent man who invented this powerful circle was known as Brahmagupta, little did he know that this important discovery would carve his name in the history of mathematics.
Here are some fascinating facts about the number zero. Zero is the only number which can’t be represented in roman numerals. The name 'zero' derives from the Arabic word sifr which also gave us the English word 'cipher' meaning 'a secret way of writing’. Zero is a number which can bring you down on your knees, even if your pocket money gets decreased by one zero, it hurts a lot doesn’t it?
Now, I’ll end this little story with a joke,
One fine day, zero met eight
Zero to eight, “you’ve dressed up well today”
Eight to zero,” what am I wearing?”
Zero to eight, “that nice belt!”
So now you see how important the zero is? So next time you get it on a test, you won’t feel so bad right?
THE END