WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: How Old Is the Number Zero?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here with a classic episode

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<v Speaker 1>from our Earth Boil host Christian Sager. This one concerns

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<v Speaker 1>that loneliest of numbers, not one, but zero. It's a

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<v Speaker 1>strange one, and it may be older than anyone thought, Hey,

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff. In mathematics, zero has two meetings. It can

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<v Speaker 1>mean nothing, I eat, I have zero dollars in my

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<v Speaker 1>bank account, or it can serve as a placeholder that's

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<v Speaker 1>part of a larger number, indicating that it is a

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<v Speaker 1>multiple of ten. As Robert Kaplan details in his book

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<v Speaker 1>The Nothing That Is a Natural History of Zero, about

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<v Speaker 1>five thousand years ago, the ancient Sumerians, who lived in

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<v Speaker 1>what is now a Rock came up with the basic

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<v Speaker 1>concept of zero as a placeholder instead of the zero

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<v Speaker 1>that we used today, though they drew complicated combinations of wedges, lines,

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<v Speaker 1>and space is in clay tablets to indicate it. Kaplan

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<v Speaker 1>explains that the concept was adopted by the Babylonians, who

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<v Speaker 1>passed it along by way of the ancient Greeks to India,

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<v Speaker 1>where Arab traders picked it up and eventually brought it

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<v Speaker 1>back to medieval Europe. Somewhere along the way, the wedges

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<v Speaker 1>that signified zero the placeholder evolved into a solid dot,

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<v Speaker 1>which was the precursor of the zero that we know today.

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<v Speaker 1>For a long time, it was believed that the earliest

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<v Speaker 1>example of that was an inscription on the wall of

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<v Speaker 1>a temple of Guali, or India, which dates back to

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<v Speaker 1>seventh century CE. But now researchers have found evidence of

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<v Speaker 1>an even earlier example. The Bakshali Manuscript, and Indian mathematical

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<v Speaker 1>text written on seventy pieces of birch bark, was discovered

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<v Speaker 1>back in one by someone digging in the soil in

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<v Speaker 1>the village of Bakshali in what is now Pakistan. The

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<v Speaker 1>exact age of the manuscript has long been a subject

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<v Speaker 1>of controversy, but the most authoritative answer to date, based

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<v Speaker 1>on an analysis by Japanese scholar Toko Hayashi, seemed to

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<v Speaker 1>place it between seven hundred and eleven hundred CE. Recently, though,

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<v Speaker 1>the University of Oxford's Bodlian Libraries, which has possessed the

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<v Speaker 1>manuscript since nineteen o two, commissioned a carbon dating study

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<v Speaker 1>of it. The new study revealed that the manuscript actually

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<v Speaker 1>may date as far back as two hundred to three

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<v Speaker 1>hundred CE, making it the oldest example of the dot

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<v Speaker 1>that later evolved into zero now. According to Bodlian's press release,

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<v Speaker 1>the concept of zero as a number in its own right,

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<v Speaker 1>one with a value of nothing, didn't come along until

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<v Speaker 1>several centuries after the Bakshali manuscript was written. It first

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<v Speaker 1>appears in a text by the Indian astronomer and mathematician

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<v Speaker 1>Drama Google. Today's episode was written by Patrick J. Keiger

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<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tristan McNeil and Tyler Clang. For more

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<v Speaker 1>on this and a non zero number of other topics,

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<v Speaker 1>visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is a production

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<v Speaker 1>of I Heart Radio. Or more podcasts from my heart Radio,

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