1 week Ago By Rod Taylor
When you think about it, "nothing" is a strange concept. How can the absence of something exist? or signup to continue reading While we can easily imagine two or three objects, zero objects is difficult to conceptualise..
. how can we describe something that isn't there? Even the language becomes difficult. And yet, in a bizarre contradiction of itself, nothing does exist.
Or at least it does in mathematics. If you've ever attempted to add numbers using Roman numerals, you'll know it's near impossible, not least because of the clumsy notation. Roman numerals don't line up in columns because four is written as IV, while five is V.
Worse, Roman numerals don't have a way of showing zero. It's a flawed system because zero is a perfectly legitimate number that can be manipulated like any other. The origin of zero is difficult to nail down and probably was invented at least twice.
Perhaps the oldest zero in mathematics was some 4000-5000 years ago by the Sumerians who used a pair of angled wedges to denote an empty number column. A version of the symbol for zero was probably a large dot, found in an Indian manuscript dating (AD 224-383). They apparently found it useful because the Bakhshali manuscript was an arithmetic guide for merchants.
Then there's a carving in the 9th-century Chaturbhuj India temple that reads: "This is ground zero for zero". The temple contains the oldest known example of zero, inscribed as the familiar digit 0, as part the number 270. Indian mathematics then found its way into Europe via medieval Islamic scholars and the Italian mathematician Fibonacci.
If nothing - zero - occurs in mathematics, can it exist in nature? While a vacuum cleaner can achieve a 20 per cent vacuum, in the best ultra vacuum chambers you'd need ten one-litre milk cartons to find a single atom. In intergalactic space, the number would be significantly less. The problem is, that even a vacuum chamber is not empty because it's being bombarded by billions of neutrinos that fly straight through almost any substance.
We could theoretically build a stupendously large barrier that blocks them, but the barrier itself would be an emitter. The final nail in our thought experiment is space itself. Given the insights of Einstein, we now know that space is a thing created by the Big Bang.
That means we can be near certain that there are zero examples of a true vacuum in the universe, and the only places you'll ever encounter one is in mathematics and political speeches. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis.
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