Yasemin Saplakoglu

So zero was invented relatively late in history.

It was first thought to be invented around like 2,500 years ago by Babylonian traders in ancient Mesopotamia, actually.

That's Yasmin Saplakoglu.

She's a science writer at Quantum Magazine.

Back then, they used a symbol like two slanted wedges on clay tablets.

But at the time, it wasn't a number yet.

It was really used as a placeholder so that you can distinguish between different types of numbers like 20 or 250 or 205.

There were Indian mathematicians who came up with a couple of ways to use zero as a number.

And they were the kind of first to figure out that zero could be a digit, just like the other numbers, like 1 and 2 and 3.

After that, it kind of went out from India to the Arab world.

And then, you know, in the 13th century, Fominachi actually picked up the idea during his travels in North Africa.

And he brought it back to medieval Europe, you know, along with the base 10 number system.

People had difficulty with accepting it.

It was kind of scary.

People were confused by it.

Some thought of it as like the devil's number that challenged like really deeply held ideas.

And, you know, because of the influence of the church, like philosophers and theologians associated nothing with like chaos and disorder.

It's a weird concept if you even think too deeply about it.

It's like we're describing something that doesn't exist, right?

We like see three chairs or we see four birds and we can count those and they're, you know, physically there.