0 - There is no 0 AD. There was a 1 BC and 1 AD - Still to this day, some people debate that technically a decade should span from 2001-2010, and not as 2000-2009, as many of us accustom to.
Counting by the Numbers
Counting by the Numbers
I thought I'd create a fun thread where you post a little bit of trivia associated with a number, in ascending order. I'll start off.
0 - There is no 0 AD. There was a 1 BC and 1 AD - Still to this day, some people debate that technically a decade should span from 2001-2010, and not as 2000-2009, as many of us accustom to.
0 - There is no 0 AD. There was a 1 BC and 1 AD - Still to this day, some people debate that technically a decade should span from 2001-2010, and not as 2000-2009, as many of us accustom to.
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monotonehell
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Re: Counting by the Numbers
Wayno, in the decimal system 2 comes after 1.... 
Wayno fails at counting!Shuz wrote:I thought I'd create a fun thread where you post a little bit of trivia associated with a number, in ascending order.
Exit on the right in the direction of travel.
Re: Counting by the Numbers
0
There's still debate to this day, but ZERO was apparently invented by the Indians (or the Mayan's - depending which theory you believe). Indian historical records show ZERO in use as early at the 5th century in mathematical calculations (division) and they had clearly defined rules for it's use:
* The sum of zero and a negative number is negative.
* The sum of zero and a positive number is positive.
* The sum of zero and zero is zero.
* The sum of a positive and a negative is their difference; or, if their absolute values are equal, zero.
* A positive or negative number when divided by zero is a fraction with the zero as denominator.
* Zero divided by a negative or positive number is either zero or is expressed as a fraction with zero as numerator and the finite quantity as denominator.
* Zero divided by zero is zero.
The concept of ZERO stressed the Greeks Philosophers (how can nothing be something?) and it turned into a religious debate. The got nowhere on this subject.
Most of europe (using the roman numeric system - I,II,III,IV...) had no concept of zero, and did not really start to latch onto it's usefulness until somewhere around the 8th century.
The hindu/arabic base-10 system, that we all know and love, was formally introduced to european life somewhere around the 10th century (mainly credited to Fibonacci, the italian mathematician).
There's lots of books on this topic - most interesting reading.
There's still debate to this day, but ZERO was apparently invented by the Indians (or the Mayan's - depending which theory you believe). Indian historical records show ZERO in use as early at the 5th century in mathematical calculations (division) and they had clearly defined rules for it's use:
* The sum of zero and a negative number is negative.
* The sum of zero and a positive number is positive.
* The sum of zero and zero is zero.
* The sum of a positive and a negative is their difference; or, if their absolute values are equal, zero.
* A positive or negative number when divided by zero is a fraction with the zero as denominator.
* Zero divided by a negative or positive number is either zero or is expressed as a fraction with zero as numerator and the finite quantity as denominator.
* Zero divided by zero is zero.
The concept of ZERO stressed the Greeks Philosophers (how can nothing be something?) and it turned into a religious debate. The got nowhere on this subject.
Most of europe (using the roman numeric system - I,II,III,IV...) had no concept of zero, and did not really start to latch onto it's usefulness until somewhere around the 8th century.
The hindu/arabic base-10 system, that we all know and love, was formally introduced to european life somewhere around the 10th century (mainly credited to Fibonacci, the italian mathematician).
There's lots of books on this topic - most interesting reading.
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
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monotonehell
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- Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2008 12:10 am
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Re: Counting by the Numbers
1Shuz wrote:I thought I'd create a fun thread where you post a little bit of trivia associated with a number, in ascending order. I'll start off.
0 - There is no 0 AD. There was a 1 BC and 1 AD - Still to this day, some people debate that technically a decade should span from 2001-2010, and not as 2000-2009, as many of us accustom to.
The Gregorian Calendar was backdated to 1AD, but If you're going to post pedantic trivia it needs to be correct. The named decades do start at 0 and go to 9. For example the decade of the 1980s went from 1980 to 1989. A decade being a period of ten years, can be any sequential ten years, like 2003 to 2012.
It's centuries that start at 1 and end in 00. For example this current century started Jan 1st 2001 and will end Dec 31st 2100.
Exit on the right in the direction of travel.
Re: Counting by the Numbers
sequence of above posts altered due to smart arse comment by monotonehellmonotonehell wrote:Wayno, in the decimal system 2 comes after 1....Wayno fails at counting!Shuz wrote:I thought I'd create a fun thread where you post a little bit of trivia associated with a number, in ascending order.
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Re: Counting by the Numbers
mono-fail. Something in his DNA that makes him prefer things with only 1 thing and not 2Shuz wrote:Thread fail?
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
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monotonehell
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Re: Counting by the Numbers
Wielding VIP powers to cover up mistakes is cheating. I approve of this wholeheartedly.
One is the loneliest number...
2 In ancient Egypt their concept of one, two and so on were slightly different. The symbol for one thing was one symbol for that one thing, if you follow. The symbol for two things was two symbols for that thing. Makes sense so far. But if they wrote three symbols, that meant many.
While on the subject of hieroglyphs, most writing systems start in one place and continue in a direction agreed upon by convention. English speakers tend to write left to right and down the page, Yiddish right to left, Chinese down and to the left, and so on.
However when the Egyptians wrote things on their walls they went from the Deity out. So on the left of the God they might write to the left and perhaps down the side. While on the right they'd right to the right and down. Or something like that...
One is the loneliest number...
2 In ancient Egypt their concept of one, two and so on were slightly different. The symbol for one thing was one symbol for that one thing, if you follow. The symbol for two things was two symbols for that thing. Makes sense so far. But if they wrote three symbols, that meant many.
While on the subject of hieroglyphs, most writing systems start in one place and continue in a direction agreed upon by convention. English speakers tend to write left to right and down the page, Yiddish right to left, Chinese down and to the left, and so on.
However when the Egyptians wrote things on their walls they went from the Deity out. So on the left of the God they might write to the left and perhaps down the side. While on the right they'd right to the right and down. Or something like that...
Exit on the right in the direction of travel.
Re: Counting by the Numbers
3 is the first odd prime number, the number of human perceived spatial dimensions, the atomic number for lithium, and failure point for most movie sequels...
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
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