The “discovery of the number 0” thing always bugs me because obviously no one needed to discover the number zero as it’s used to express “I own zero goats”.
The important discovery was the use of 0 as a placeholder in a column indicating no value, when writing the number 10 for example. Basically it’s the discovery of a positional numeric system where the position / column of the digits means something.
The distinction between the concept of “nothing” as general concept, and “nothing” as a numerical value is non-trivial. And like, a mathematical proof that outlines that numerical concept of “nothing” is important.
The “discovery of the number 0” thing always bugs me because obviously no one needed to discover the number zero as it’s used to express “I own zero goats”.
The important discovery was the use of 0 as a placeholder in a column indicating no value, when writing the number 10 for example. Basically it’s the discovery of a positional numeric system where the position / column of the digits means something.
The distinction between the concept of “nothing” as general concept, and “nothing” as a numerical value is non-trivial. And like, a mathematical proof that outlines that numerical concept of “nothing” is important.