If someone were to ask me, ' what is my favorite number', I would have replied 'zero'. Although it seems insignificant at first, I think zero is the most phenomenal number.
In the first place, zero represents the nothingness, which in fact does not exist in the real world at all. Actually, the mind of human can only understand the existence of something, but not the non-existence of something.
According to the Pythagorean Philosophy, there are four fundamental concepts of Mathematics: harmony, astronomy, geometry and arithmetic.
Arithmetic is primarily concerned with addition and subtraction, or more precisely counting. The entities of the same category can be added together endlessly, until the group becomes infinitely large. This is the basic concept of addition. Similarly, subtraction is the reverse process. From a group of entities, each entity is taken away until there is nothing left. In fact, the subtraction introduces a problem - the empty group.
Geometry is primarily concerned with size, location and shape. It was Thales who first introduced a point to the Geometry, which has no size nor shape but just location.
Harmony is primarily concerned with relative comparison: how large an entity is compared to the others. In fact, most arts and musics are based on harmony, which defines the ratios between different and similar entities. For example, musical notes are defined in relative ratios and the geometry of drawings are defined in certain ratios. The most famous ratios are the golden ratio and PI.
Astronomy is primarily concerned with relative location and motion. The first astronomers were the merchants who used the location and motion of stars to calculate their location in the sea or in the desert.
Although the basic concepts of mathematics are defined in 4 aspects: harmony, astronomy, geometry and arithmetic, the idea of nothingness or emptiness was not well defined in Greek Mathematics. There were school of philosophers who agreed with nothingness while others strongly argued. For example, those who opposed the idea of nothingness argued that a stick could be divided into 2 pieces, 4 pieces and so on until it became infinitely small.
The idea of nothingness or emptiness (Śūnyatā) comes from Indian Philosophy. Some ideas of emptiness can be seen in Taoism as well. Through the Arabic Philosophers, the ideas of emptiness was imported to the Western World, until it became successfully integrated with the existing Greek Mathematical Philosophy.
It is in fact the idea of Zero which laid the foundation of Modern Mathematics and Physics. Calculus had not been invented until after the idea of zero was well defined in Mathematics, although the basic concepts of Limit and Continuity, such as Zeno's Paradoxes were already introduced. Therefore, zero is the most phenomenal number at least I believe.
In the first place, zero represents the nothingness, which in fact does not exist in the real world at all. Actually, the mind of human can only understand the existence of something, but not the non-existence of something.
According to the Pythagorean Philosophy, there are four fundamental concepts of Mathematics: harmony, astronomy, geometry and arithmetic.
Arithmetic is primarily concerned with addition and subtraction, or more precisely counting. The entities of the same category can be added together endlessly, until the group becomes infinitely large. This is the basic concept of addition. Similarly, subtraction is the reverse process. From a group of entities, each entity is taken away until there is nothing left. In fact, the subtraction introduces a problem - the empty group.
Geometry is primarily concerned with size, location and shape. It was Thales who first introduced a point to the Geometry, which has no size nor shape but just location.
Harmony is primarily concerned with relative comparison: how large an entity is compared to the others. In fact, most arts and musics are based on harmony, which defines the ratios between different and similar entities. For example, musical notes are defined in relative ratios and the geometry of drawings are defined in certain ratios. The most famous ratios are the golden ratio and PI.
Astronomy is primarily concerned with relative location and motion. The first astronomers were the merchants who used the location and motion of stars to calculate their location in the sea or in the desert.
Although the basic concepts of mathematics are defined in 4 aspects: harmony, astronomy, geometry and arithmetic, the idea of nothingness or emptiness was not well defined in Greek Mathematics. There were school of philosophers who agreed with nothingness while others strongly argued. For example, those who opposed the idea of nothingness argued that a stick could be divided into 2 pieces, 4 pieces and so on until it became infinitely small.
The idea of nothingness or emptiness (Śūnyatā) comes from Indian Philosophy. Some ideas of emptiness can be seen in Taoism as well. Through the Arabic Philosophers, the ideas of emptiness was imported to the Western World, until it became successfully integrated with the existing Greek Mathematical Philosophy.
It is in fact the idea of Zero which laid the foundation of Modern Mathematics and Physics. Calculus had not been invented until after the idea of zero was well defined in Mathematics, although the basic concepts of Limit and Continuity, such as Zeno's Paradoxes were already introduced. Therefore, zero is the most phenomenal number at least I believe.
