Is Zero a number?

[neilm]

Zero is a word, 0 is a number

 

[ReiAyanami]

you need to look at your question more carefully.

Zero is not a number, it is a word.

0 is a number


Edit: dam beat me by 09 minutes

 

[JBT]

0 is a number

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: ReiAyanami
you need to look at your question more carefully.

Zero is not a number, it is a word.

0 is a number


Edit: dam beat me by 09 minutes

Well, if you're going to be that pedantic, '0' is just a character. Numbers are abstract and completely independent of their [decimal] representation.

 

[silverpig]

0 = a number

And the black/white debate, here's a little info.

Main Entry: 1col·or
Pronunciation: 'k&-l&r
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English colour, from Old French, from Latin color; akin to Latin celare to conceal -- more at HELL
Date: 13th century
1 a : a phenomenon of light (as red, brown, pink, or gray) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects b : the aspect of objects and light sources that may be described in terms of hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light sources c : a hue as contrasted with black, white, or gray

 

[RSI]

Bob: "How many pizzas did you have today, punk? well, how many?"
Joe: "I had zero pizzas today, asshole."

So how many NUMBER OF PIZZAS did Joe have? He had ZERO pizzas. Does this make sense? If so, zero is a number. If not, then the previous is impossible is it not?

 

[arcenite]

No, it's a letter.

Bill

 

[upsciLLion]

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: ReiAyanami
you need to look at your question more carefully.

Zero is not a number, it is a word.

0 is a number


Edit: dam beat me by 09 minutes

Well, if you're going to be that pedantic, '0' is just a character. Numbers are abstract and completely independent of their [decimal] representation.

Exactly. What's a 2?

ups

 

[stonecold3169]

It depends on what context you define it in... it exhibits quantities that other numbers don't, and so in some cases it appears it shouldn't be a number... for example, you can make a communative ring for any subset out of Z except for the set which is only zero such that Y={0}, R=<Y,+,*> doesn't exist but it does for all other ints...

Also, think of the holes zero is involved in... division by zero is yucky, and such cases as infinity*Constant is defined to be infinity except for at Constant=0, which is undefined. Also, as far as groups go, 0 has a different meaning... for example, take 2 Rings A, B, and if you evaluate AB=0 you'll find that neither A nor B has to equal zero, and you can even prove a similar argument for the integers using the uniqueness of inverses theorems, although I think that that is above the level of this messageboard discussion.

 

[stonecold3169]

Originally posted by: RSI
Bob: "How many pizzas did you have today, punk? well, how many?"
Joe: "I had zero pizzas today, asshole."

So how many NUMBER OF PIZZAS did Joe have? He had ZERO pizzas. Does this make sense? If so, zero is a number. If not, then the previous is impossible is it not?

Bob: "How many kleenex did you use today?"
Joe: "2 whole boxes!"

However, that day Joe had no Kleenex! What gives? He has facial tissues. Did the above convo between Bob and Joe make sense? Yeah... but it was incorrect. Just because pop culture says something is right doesn't mean it is... sometimes things get connected by recognition and habit to things that they shouldn't, and things that aren't quite right.

 

[Kelemvor]

Originally posted by: yowolabi
No it's not a number. Zero represents the lack of a number. It doesn't represent a value in itself.

It reprsents lack of a quantity, not lack of a number. A number is just a written representation of an amount. When you have no amount, that's represented by the number 0.

 

[GermyBoy]

It's not like is zero a number, but more like why is zero THE number?

It is the placeholder, the center of -infinity and +infinity. It is in the exact center of all numbers, and nothing can divide by it, for if something could be divided into nothing, then that something would become everything.

It is the balance in the number system...it is THE number. :Q

 

[Ronstang]

Originally posted by: Konigin
Yes, 0 is a number

Anything divided by 0 is the same number, just because its 0 doesn't mean its not a number.

EDIT: Sorry, yeah, duh, I knew that

Its infinite.

Not quite Einstein.....anything divided by zero is undefined. Zero is not a number, it is a place holder as stated earlier.

 

[MrSmithers]

Originally posted by: yowolabi
No it's not a number. Zero represents the lack of a number. It doesn't represent a value in itself.

Zero does not represent the lack of a number. That would be the empty vector for whatever space you are talking about. For example, if you look at set theory, say you have sets A={0,1,3} B={0,2,5} C={2,4,5} then A(intersect)B is {0} which is certainly different then A(int)C which is the empty set.

The answer to this question ultimately define a number. If you look at the algebraic numbers, a subset of all numbers, the definition is that an algebraic number is the solution to a polynomial of degree n where n>0 and each coeffecient is an integer. If we look at x^2-x=0, then certainly x=0 is a solution, and 0 then is an algebraic numbers. Since A's are a subset of all numbers, then 0 is a number (similarly, 0 is an integer, a rational, a natural which are all subsets of all numbers)

Smithers

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: GermyBoy
It's not like is zero a number, but more like why is zero THE number?

It is the placeholder, the center of -infinity and +infinity. It is in the exact center of all numbers, and nothing can divide by it, for if something could be divided into nothing, then that something would become everything.

It is the balance in the number system...it is THE number. :Q

It's like... ne0... but he's the one... or is it 0ne?

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Ronstang

Originally posted by: Konigin
Yes, 0 is a number

Anything divided by 0 is the same number, just because its 0 doesn't mean its not a number.

EDIT: Sorry, yeah, duh, I knew that

Its infinite.

Not quite Einstein.....anything divided by zero is undefined. Zero is not a number, it is a place holder as stated earlier.

Get out of medieval math dude. It was invented as a place holder when a decimal type system was emerging, but has evolved. Zero is a number.

zero

In mathematics, zero, symbolized by the numeric character 0, is both:

1. In a positional number system, a place indicator meaning "no units of this multiple." For example, in the decimal number 1,041, there is one unit in the thousands position, no units in the hundreds position, four units in the tens position, and one unit in the 1-9 position.

2. An independent value midway between +1 and -1.

In writing outside of mathematics, depending on the context, various denotative or connotative meanings for zero include "total failure," "absence," "nil," and "absolutely nothing." ("Nothing" is an even more abstract concept than "zero" and their meanings sometimes intersect.)

Notation for placeholders in positional numbers is found on stone tablets from ancient (3,000 B.C.) Sumeria. Yet, the Greeks had no concept of a number like zero. In terms of modern use, zero is sometimes traced to the Indian mathematician Aryabhata who, about 520 A.D., devised a positional decimal number system that contained a word, "kha," for the idea of a placeholder. By 876, based on an existing tablet inscription with that date, the kha had become the symbol "0". Meanwhile, somewhat after Aryabhata, another Indian, Brahmagupta, developed the concept of the zero as an actual independent number, not just a place-holder, and wrote rules for adding and subtracting zero from other numbers. The Indian writings were passed on to al-Khwarizmi (from whose name we derive the term algorithm) and thence to Leonardo Fibonacci and others who continued to develop the concept and the number.

Various arithmetic operations that include zero have sometimes been the subject of dispute such as the result of dividing zero by zero. The answer is that it can't be done. Although early mathematicians tried to wrestle some sort of result out of this operation, later ones have decided that this problem just won't bear any fruit. This is viewed as another case where language allows us to ask a question that really doesn't make sense to ask.

Zero to the zeroeth power on the other hand has three possible answers. For some apparently useful reasons, the answer is 1. But in other contexts, the answer can be either "indeterminate" (not capable of being calculated) or "undefined/nonexistent."

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: Kyteland

Originally posted by: Anubis
yes its a number and its positive and even

Zero is a number. It is even, but it is neither positive nor negative.

Zero is even. 0, 2, 4, 6 -> even numbers
1,3,5,-1 -> odd numbers

At least in CS zero is an even number