Zero is a unique number, belonging to neither the positive nor negative number set. It was the very last number symbol to be developed. Among the ancient Babylonian civilizations of 600 b.c. and earlier, a space was sometimes used to indicate an "empty place," however often as not, spaces were not used. Therefore, using Akkadian symbols and the Babylonia base of sixty, the numbers 1, 60, 3600, and 216,000 were all written with the same symbol. Despite its potential for confusion, the method appears to have been acceptable for several centuries. Around 300 b.c. the Babylonians invented a special sign to serve as a placeholder where a numeral was missing. However, this symbol was apparently used only for intermediate empty positions, so the Babylonians never achieved an absolute positional number system.
The first zero symbol was believed to have originated in the fourth century b.c. by an unknown Indian mathematician. Wanting to record a more permanent answer from his beaded counting board, he used a simple dot, called a sunya, to indicate columns in which there were no beads. In a.d. 150 the astronomer Ptolemy began using the omicron (the first letter of the Greek word meaning "nothing") in the manner of our zero as a place holder. There is no evidence, however, that he regarded this symbol as a number that could be used in computations. In his History of Mathematics, David Eugene Smith wrote, "There is no probability that the origin [of zero] will ever be known, and there is no particular reason why it should be.
We simply know that the world felt the need of a better number system, and that the zero appeared in India as early as the 9th century, and probably some time before that, and was very likely a Hindu invention." One of the earliest known occurrences in India of zero as a place value is seen in an inscription from 876 which shows 50 and 270 both written with zeros. The concept of zero as a number may actually have occurred to the Hindus before the seventh century. A work by Brahmagupta (fl. 628) asserts that 0/0 = 0. The ninth century Hindu mathematician Mahavira also wrote on the arithmetic rules for calculating with zero, although dividing by zero was still not properly understood. Around the same time, the Arab mathematician al-Khwarizmi described the Hindu number system with positional notation and a zero symbol in his book Kitab al-jabr wa'l muqabalah.
The zero symbol was indicated by a dot, or sifr, as it was called in Arabic. Sifr became zephirum in Latin, which then became the word zero. The dot gradually evolved to a small circle and it eventually became the familiar oval we recognize today. The zero symbol reached Europe about the twelfth century; however, it was not eagerly received. Reluctant to abandon their familiar Roman numerals, many Europeans revolted against the new Hindu-Arabic symbols. A hostile battle ensued between the partisans of the two systems that sometimes even resulted in bloodshed. By 1500, almost four hundred years after its introduction in Europe, the Hindu-Arabic numbers were accepted and adopted as our standard numerals. Even before this time, however, the Mayas of Central America and Mexico had developed a numeration system that essentially used a base 20 counting system with a zero denoted by an egg-shaped symbol.
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