Una Historia Natural del Cero

The zero has an ambiguous nature. It appears in each moment of our experimentation with an empty sign that transforms the quantities written to the left of it. Besides being nothing, in the strict meaning of the term, it makes thousands of calculations possible. Where did the elusive zero come from? Who created it? What is its true meaning? Primarily, this essay takes a historical approach that brings the reader back to summer in ancient Greece to recover the origins and evolutions of this ancient sign. The historical tour, which also includes the Mayan region, continues through the Middle Ages when zero used to be associated with the Devil and magical arts. Kaplan displays mathematical abstractions and risks demonstrations to introduce us to the world of zero.