Wednesday, May 11, 2005

0

Zero.

Imagine being credited as the person who actually discovered and invented a substance, a concept, known as "nothing." It's like being the person who invented the hole in the doughnut. But here's the wonderful part of inventing "nothing": it was a concept that has had a tremendous influence on the history of mankind because it made the development of higher mathematics possible. It is what propelled us to see further into our oceans and farther into our heavens. It is what helped us get to the moon and beyond our solar system. And it represents "nothing."

Long before the birth of Christ, the Hindus of India invented a far better number system than the Roman system. It was brought to Europe about the year of 900 by Arab traders and is called the Hindu-Arabic system. In this system, which we use today, all numbers are written with the nine digits... and the zero. And it all started outas a simple idea in someone's head.

So the next time you create an idea, a concept, or an invention, and someone compliments you, be careful not to simply say, "Oh, it was nothing." Or if your child, niece, nephew or student states, "Oh, it was nothing" to you, be sure not to let it go. Because it may very well be something.