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๐Ÿ”ข Number Theory

Zero & Infinity

India's greatest gift to mathematics โ€” zero as a number was invented by Brahmagupta in 628 AD

India ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ 628 Number Theory

Key Facts

  1. 1

    Brahmagupta (628 AD) first gave rules for arithmetic with zero โ€” including the controversial 0รท0

  2. 2

    Aryabhata (499 AD) used zero as a positional place value in his astronomical calculations

  3. 3

    Georg Cantor (1874) showed there are different sizes of infinity: countable (natural numbers) vs uncountable (real numbers)

๐Ÿ”ข Did you know? Without zero, there is no positional notation โ€” which means no large numbers, no calculus, no computers; zero is the single most important invention in mathematics

Quick Reference

Category

Number Theory

Country

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Year / Era

628

About

India's greatest gift to mathematics โ€” zero as a number was invented by Brahmagupta in 628 AD