Started by Matteo Rossi (@roman_road) ·
why roman numerals have no zero
5 sources · 24 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- “why no zero in roman numerals”
- Ended at
- Brahmagupta
The Trail
- “why no zero in roman numerals” (google.com)
- Roman numerals (en.wikipedia.org)
- 0 (en.wikipedia.org)
- Abacus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Brahmagupta (en.wikipedia.org)
What I came away with
Romans did arithmetic on counting boards and the abacus, and numerals were just for recording results. An empty column on the board didn't need a symbol. Zero as a number came from Indian mathematics, with Brahmagupta writing rules for it in 628.
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