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The return - I started this blog as an unofficial vehicle for interesting statistical information. When I retired, I let it lie fallow. I'm going to post here period...6 months ago
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Gender Wage Gap By State - Census Bureau - If you need a reason to start a business, the gender wage gap may be a factor. The Census has created a new visualization of the disparity between male ...2 years ago
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Alan Moore's Twilight Proposal - Introduction by Alan David Doane: Honestly I didn't intend the irony, but this week's FMF, looking at Alan Moore's never-published Twilight proposal, also ...12 years ago
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People I Know
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Freezing Cold March For Dr. King - Plus the politicized Census, police hiring shortfalls, ornamental apple trees and the mayor’s image cloaking device4 years ago
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Kellyanne Conway named UAlbany graduation commencement speaker - Kellyanne Conway, the pollster who organized the election campaign of President Donald Trump, has been named by the University at Albany to be its keynote ...6 years ago
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We’re Off On An Adventure! - Just now, Marge and I are doing a bit of adventuring. The next adventure will include a whole new online reality and presence for me and my work… See you i...8 years ago
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It Changes - Living with Lupus and Fibro and Asthma is often not so much 'one day at a time.' It is much more like one fifteen minute segment of time - at at time. This...10 years ago
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Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye… - Well, kids, this is it. I’m leaving first thing tomorrow morning. My visits home will be few and far between, and when they happen, they’ll be exclusive...11 years ago
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Modern Types-Ronald Searle,Geoffrey Gorer - With the recent attention given to Ronald Searle's 90th birthday and new interview,I decided to look at one of his books. The book is titled Modern Ty...14 years ago
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Eclectic Folks
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A bun-tastic day - Today I scored an important victory: I finally found some hot cross buns (photo above). It’s an annual tradition this time of year, and welcome move towar...8 hours ago
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A Conversation with Darius Fisher: Safeguarding Online Reputations - Title: A Conversation with Bobby Martino: Safeguarding Online Reputations In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, where information spreads at lightning s...2 weeks ago
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second-guess - [image: young woman head & shoulders, hand on chin, surrounded by question marks; Text: The Confidence Catalyst Podcast, How to stop second-guessing you...5 weeks ago
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AmeriNZ 412 – Returning to normal mode - This week I’ve been starting to get back to regular life after my holiday. February is already shaping up to be a busy month. I start today with updates to...1 month ago
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Here we are at 21. - Happy 21st birthday, Johnny Bacardi Show! Probably won't begin writing here again anytime soon, but hey, if you like my stuff I have a Substack now and...5 months ago
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Check me out! - Over the years I have collected a range of recipes to help me lose weight. I attend Slimming World and achieved my target weight in November 2022. Read...5 months ago
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This is The End (a follow-up) - I wrote yesterday about my possibly retiring this space in favor of migrating all of my blogging to ForgottenStars.net, because of Reasons. I am now pul...2 years ago
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A Dumb God - People who believe in God but don’t believe that creation is teleologically imbued essentially believe in a dumb God, likely a God who merely exists to ser...2 years ago
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18 and life, you got it - It's the 18th of April, and that means it's the anniversary of Mia's accident - 18 (!!!!) years ago today, we were in the crash that damaged her brain ir...2 years ago
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Sunday Round-up - Wash your mouth out In these ultra-hygienic days, Russian artist Yulia Popova has come into her own by making models of foodstuffs out of soap. What makes y...3 years ago
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I believe ..Religion - Written by the Rev.Jeannette van der Veen-Bosgra I believe in a world where all people can live in happiness, and that I too have a duty to create such a wo...5 years ago
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Tough Day - A few weeks ago, I turned 38, and I am still under the scrutiny of strangers in public. One would think that once you're out of grade school, middle school...5 years ago
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Retro Y'all! - Still jumping. In place, mostly. Someone should do one of these rap battle style brags about being a junker. Seriously. Big sale at the Peddlers Mall today.5 years ago
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X is for XMAS - *MERRY CHRISTMAS (XMAS) EVERYONE!* I thought I'd put a link to the top 100 Xmas songs for 2017 so you could click on it and play anything your heart d...6 years ago
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The Myth Memers - One of those little questionnaires just to dip a toe back into blogging. Took this from Chris Hull's Facebook. 1. Do you make your bed? No. 2. The first c...6 years ago
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Now available in paperback! - *Sharp: A Memoir*. William Morrow & Co, 2012. Print. We lost 4 members of the Guilford High School Class of 84: David Ciardello, Richard Eaton, Ronnie Burn...7 years ago
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No parallel - Get a good look at these: Whence they came: After seeing that incredible glow-in-the-dark Zac Posen dress that Claire Danes wore at the 2016 Met Gala, Lori...7 years ago
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ABC Wednesday: The Importance of Being Bored - When I was growing up, you being bored was your problem that you were responsible to rectify. As children we learned never to be bored- or at least not t...7 years ago
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Monday PSA: The Pioneer of the Pole - Click on the image for the full ad As promised, the second of two Antarctica themed PSAs. Today: “Pioneer of the Pole.” Just like last week, this is from D...7 years ago
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Final Act - Dear Followers of Berowne's "Savage Reflections." I'm very sorry to have to inform you that my father, John Savage, passed away on December 26, just a week...8 years ago
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Friday Post - Your services are no longer needed - Heads will roll While the good news fairies of Wall Street would have you believe that everything is just hunky dory the truth is it's not. In order to m...8 years ago
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Age is a State of Mind, Somewhere Near Nebraska - What a year it has been! After surviving the odometer rolling over to 40, I had a year of sabbatical. That gave me plenty of time to think about my mid-lif...8 years ago
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The End of a Long Day - You know those days where all you really want to do is change into your pajamas and curl up on the couch while you decide which comfort food would mak...9 years ago
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#Freaking Out -AND! - Calmly completely freaking out about my move. AND! I quit smoking. I feel this qualifies me to have an opinion on how to do it. So I am calmly completel...10 years ago
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Gaze Upon My Works and Snicker, Part 53. - [image: DP700-F365028] Another quickie sketch at work, because I wanted to draw Pandora A in a white fuzzy hat (no, I don't know the name for them) and a b...10 years ago
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Superheroes I Love #10: Deathlok - Every red-blooded boy loves cyborgs. Half-man, half-robot, what’s not to love? The Marvel Comics character Deathlok is a bit on the obscure side, but debut...12 years ago
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Z is for Zero
I was looking at someone's blog last week. I came across this picture of a large floral clock with its digits in Roman numerals. And it reminded me of something my fifth or sixth grade teacher once told me; the Romans did not have a symbol for zero. As the Wikipedia post suggests, dots and blank spaces might have been utilized.
But, "Records show that the ancient Greeks seemed unsure about the status of zero as a number. They asked themselves, 'How can nothing be something?', leading to philosophical and, by the Medieval period, religious arguments about the nature and existence of zero and the vacuum." Thus, knowing the difference between, say, 16 barrels and 106 barrels was a matter of context. (This rather reminds me of some ancient scriptures that used neither vowels nor spaces.) Here's another history of zero.
This is utterly fascinating to me! It was not merely the fact that the Arabs created Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, etc.); it's that they were "philosophically neutral" enough to give a null placeholder its due.
And some placeholder it's turned out to be. Add a couple zeroes to 1 to make it a hundred, another to make it a thousand, three more to make it a million. But then it gets complicated. There's disagreement throughout the world how many zeroes are needed to make a billion, trillion and so forth. That's probably why one is prone to see designations such as 10 to the 12th power rather than having it stated it as trillion (U.S.) or billion (much of the rest of the world). Check out this link and look for the "add zero" file, for a humorous take on this.
Once zero is given a value, the notion of negative numbers can evolve. In the winter, we use them all the time when discussing temperature, for instance. Unfortunately, there are two popular scales, Celsius (called Centigrade when I was growing up), used by most of the world, and Fahrenheit, in use primarily in the metric-resistant United States. Thus:
0 degrees Celsius is 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
0 degrees Fahrenheit is -17.78 degrees Celsius.
Cold and colder.
The scales are the same at -40; here's a temperature converter.
Then there is absolute zero, the point at which there is a "theoretical absence of all thermal energy." By definition, that is at 0 degrees on the Kelvin scale (−273.15 C, -459.67 F).
Collins Helium Cryostat that freezes elements to absolute zero. September 1948
Once the concept of zero and negative number takes hold, then other concepts involving the word "zero" got introduced. Zero sum, for instance, suggests that some people are advantaged, and others disadvantaged in a transaction, and once you add up the pluses and the minuses, the sum is equal to zero. Or to quote John Mellencamp, "there's winners and there's losers." Compare this concept to win-win (or, I suppose, lose-lose.)
Zero hour refers to the end of the countdown to particular event, whether it be planned or unforeseen.
I'll end this with a song by Joan Armatrading, one of two "name" artists I've sactually seen twice (the other being the Temptations), doing Down to Zero.
Jerome McLaughlin buying war bond from rural mailman Mark Whalon making rounds in sub-zero weather. East Dorset, VT, US; December 1942
ROG
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31 comments:
Zero (and its "companion" infinity) are remarkable issues. The most "dangerous" subjects in the whole of mathematics.
Wow, that almost gave me a headache reading about "nothing". Fascinating info. for the letter Z.
Roger, There's more to "zero" than I ever imagined. Thanks for introducing me to Joan Armatrading!
Fascinating post, Roger, as always! Like the others I never realized that there was so much about nothing!! Terrific!
Sylvia
Ah indeed there is a huge history to the concept of zero - all of it quite fascinating.
I was never good at Math, and I always got confused with the Roman Numbers.
At my age, I don't want to know numbers, except I play SUDOKU.
Cheers,
Ann
P/s I and DHL some of Australia heat to you/
In the Netherlands six zeros gives you a million, nine zeros a milliard, twelve zeros a billion, fifteen zeros a billiard, eighteen zeros a trillion and twenty-one zeros a trilliard. Anything after that is (in my opinion) a bucket load!!
Very interesting post as always:-)
Have a great evening!
Excellent post. Of course, all math is nothing more than a human construct, but it's revolutionised how we think and learn.
You are very interesting, Roger, and always manage to compile a variety of note worthy facts. Nice vintage photo also...
Wow - what a fascinating post! I learned alot!
And I thought a post on zero wouldn't be too interesting - so I chose soemthing else! lol Was I ever wrong!
Loved the song. Haven't heard her in a while.
I learn a lot from your post about Z thanks for sharing!
Zucchini
Only you could come up with such an interesting post about '0'! Great Z. Very good post.
Much ado! Interesting piece but the piece de resistance is the final photo - the sale of a war bond. I love that photo!
Fascinating post on zero!
By Zeus, that is quite a zealous analysis of the numeral zero.
Much ado about nothing, but a most interesting post. Love the closing song.
That a whole lot of "nothing" you wrote about! HA! I agree...it's fascinating...fabulously academic post!
When I was a kid, I hated Math, but now I find it quite fascinating. I should copy this and take it to some of the teachers at my former school. Really interesting post!
I love this post! I never knew one could dig up so much background and history on zero! Thanks-this really appeals to the 'scientist' in me!
such an informative take on Z!
thank you
Thanks for this interesting post, Roger! I never realised that the Romans didn't regard zero as a number. I am used to algebra, where negative numbers are just as important as positive ones.
Great explanation and an eye opener for me.
Have a nice day!
Lots of interesting information there. I've had the discussion with older son about whether zero is really a number, and he says not, which I found difficult to get my head around. Your calling it a 'placeholder' makes a lot of sense. ;)
I just read this morning that to fight against global warming the Farenheit users just have to switch over to Celius, lol !
What would we do without the number zero! There have been instances where people have had unexpected windfalls because a computer accidentally added a few zeros to their checks. And the reverse is true--people who have had exorbitant bills sent to them and had the headache of trying to straighten out all those extra zeros.
I always hope that when I mention the temperature on my blog that my UK readers convert it to C--there's quite a difference in zero degrees between the two!
Have never thought about that there is no figure for zero in the roman numerical, but you are right it starts with I.
And I have never thought of the complexibilty with zero either, often it just have been equal with none and obviously it isn´t that simple.
Thanks for stopping by.
Dead good! I never knew there was so much to say about zero, I wouldn't have thought that up in a zillion years!
Nicely done!
Who'd have thought a number could be so interesting? Thanks for this fascinating post on 'nothing' :)
great post! i am learning a lot. i gotta read it again =)
thank you so much for the visit! till next Wednesday!
My father was a mathematician, and I remember often listening to him talking about the concept of zero. Thanks for the memory.
Loved reading this post, wonderful!
Here in my city we also have a floral clock like the one you describe, it's huge, just in front of the main University. Everybody living here has at least one photo taken in front of it, LOL!
Kisses from Nydia.
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