How to tell if an ancient culture had zero
How would you know whether an ancient culture had zero?
John D. Cook explores the challenge of inferring a number system from fragmentary evidence, using spreadsheet column labeling as a modern example of bijective base-26. He explains that distinguishing between base-5 and bijective base-5 requires large samples or contextual clues, and notes that Benford's law could theoretically help but is less practical than finding numbers with known meanings.
If you found only 20 numbers, for example, you could hardly conclude ☘︎ never appears at the beginning of a number just because it doesn’t come at the beginning of any number you’ve seen.
- lisp2240
Zero has two roles: as a positional placeholder and as a cardinal value (nothingness or net-zero). This only addresses the former.
- gmuslera
Looks like translating a positional numbering system from ancient cultures than ruling out or not if they had the concept of zero. It may be a single use symbol, here is nothing, instead of being part of bigger amounts. Numbering systems doesn't have to be positional (nor go too far).
- conartist6
What I wonder is: why has nobody noticed that code editors lack a concept of 0?
When you're writing code, you can express any concept except that of an unfilled hole. We've rearranged every part of the coding process in a twisted-up way, all for the lack of a way to express lack.
If you want to be more clear about what I mean, look to tools which can express holes like https://scratch.mit.edu and https://hazel.org. They give the feeling of letting things snap together like lego bricks. Indeed, lego bricks themselves function because of the negative space (the holes) in them!