The Power of Nothing

The concept of zero is as fascinating as it is impossible. But is this elusive digit a product of the human mind?

Posted by Tormod Guldvog
18 March, 2004 10:03:01

It has s imple job, zero. All it needs to do is connect the positive and negative integers into one, straight line of numbers.

But while the integers stretch out into infinity, zero itself has properties which no other number can match. Zero is a troublemaker in the world of mathematics. But it has not always existed - the concept of zero was not born until only a few millennia ago.

Even today, children have problems grappling with the concept of nothing at all. Although mathematicians might cringe at the notion, there are philosophers who argue that zero is simply a construct of the human mind. There is nothing in the universe, they argue, that constitutes a physical representation of zero.

This hypography presents articles and websites that explain the power of nothing, and that shows how simple math problems become impossibe, hair-raising monsters when zero pops up.

Related Links

Zero by Dick Teresi
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jul/zero.htm
This is an article from the Atlantic Monthly about the historiy of the idea of a year 0.

Ask Dr. Math: What is 0 to the 0 power?
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math/faq/faq.0.to.0.power.html
A mystery, perhaps, that zero to the power of nothing is 1? Find out why on this page.

Division by Zero
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math/faq/faq.divideby0.html
A great page from Ask Dr. Math which shows why in, a very simple way, why you can't divide by zero.

The Non-Zero Differences Puzzles
http://www.csm.astate.edu/~wpaulsen/tridiff.html
On the lighter side: can you solve this non-zero quiz?

The Zero Saga
http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbarsh/zero/ZERO.HTM
A great page on common fallacies concerning Zero. Quote: "If one does allow oneself dividing by zero, then one ends up in the Hell. That is all."

A History of Zero
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Zero.html
A history of the number zero

Fun Facts: Zero to the Zero Power
http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/ffiles/10005.3-5.shtml
A brief article about the calculation of zero to the power of zero.

A proof that 0!=1
http://westcler.org/gh/outtda/0equals1.htm
A brief mathematical proof that zero factorial is 1 - no explanations are offered, though.