THE HISTORY OF NUMBER ZERO (0)

        0 is both a number^[1] and the numerical digit used to represent that number in numerals. It fulfills a central role in mathematics as the additive identity of the integers, real numbers, and many other algebraic structures. As a digit, 0 is used as a placeholder in place value systems. In the English language, 0 may be called zero, nought or (US) naught, nil, or "o". Informal or slang terms for zero include zilch and zip.^[2]Ought or aught have also been used historically.

        The word "zero" came via French zéro from Venetian zero, which (together with cipher) came via Italian zefiro from Arabic صفر, ṣafira = "it was empty", ṣifr = "zero", "nothing". This was a translation of the Sanskrit word shoonya (śūnya), meaning "empty"

         Another zero was used in tables alongside Roman numerals by 525 (first known use by Dionysius Exiguus), but as a word, nulla meaning "nothing", not as a symbol. When division produced zero as a remainder, nihil, also meaning "nothing", was used. These medieval zeros were used by all future medieval computists (calculators of Easter). The initial "N" was used as a zero symbol in a table of Roman numerals byBede or his colleague around 725.

       In 498 AD, Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata stated that "Sthanam sthanam dasa gunam" or place to place in ten times in value, which is the origin of the modern decimal-based place value notation.^[19]

      The oldest known text to use a decimal place-value system, including a zero, is the Jain text from India entitled the Lokavibhâga, dated 458 AD. This text uses Sanskrit numeral words for the digits, with words for zero such as the Sanskrit word for "void" or "empty", shunya.^[20] The first known use of special glyphs for the decimal digits that includes the indubitable appearance of a symbol for the digit zero, a small circle, appears on a stone inscription found at the Chaturbhuja Temple at Gwalior in India, dated 876 AD.^[21][22] There are many documents on copper plates, with the same small oin them, dated back as far as the sixth century AD, but their authenticity may be doubted.^[8]

    The Hindu-Arabic numerals and the positional number system were introduced around 500 AD, and in 825 AD, it was introduced by a Persian scientist, al-Khwārizmī,^[23] in his book on arithmetic. This book synthesized Greek and Hindu knowledge and also contained his own fundamental contribution to mathematics and science including an explanation of the use of zero.

    It was only centuries later, in the 12th century, that the Arabic numeral system was introduced to the Western world through Latin translations of his Arithmetic.

    0 is the integer immediately preceding 1. In most cultures, 0 was identified before the idea of negative things (quantities) that go lower than zero was accepted. Zero is an even number,^[24] because it is divisible by 2. 0 is neither positive nor negative. By most definitions^[25] 0 is a natural number, and then the only natural number not to be positive. Zero is a number which quantifies a count or an amount of null size.

    The value, or number, zero is not the same as the digit zero, used in numeral systems using positional notation. Successive positions of digits have higher weights, so inside a numeral the digit zero is used to skip a position and give appropriate weights to the preceding and following digits. A zero digit is not always necessary in a positional number system, for example, in the number 02. In some instances, a leading zero may be used to distinguish a number.


Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_(number)