> John writes:
> 
> > They use Hindi/Urdu numerals in Arabic language. Means  
> > that you need to be careful on a pc with Arabic char  
> > set in configuring your choice of numerals, as one of 
> > the choices is Arabic! Important connection to the Arabs
> > invention of zero is that the symbol for it is a period, 
> > but its written in mid line, not on the line, so to 
> > speak-see my license plate in pic.

Wirt replies:
> The story may be completely apocryphal, but the tale most 
> commonly told in academic circles is that when the 
> *concept* of the zero was first introduced into Europe 
> by the Moors in Spain, the Spanish academicians readily 
> embraced the idea but puzzled over how to represent it. 
> In the end they chose a circle to represent the 
> "nothingness" that the circle enveloped and that the 
> zero represented.

[snip]

> Wirt Atmar
 
The other item that catches Westerners with zero is 
their number five is the circle.  

It possible the medieval Spaniard academics choose 
the circle because it was the farthest ordinal sequence 
they could get from the Arabic dot in both directions 
(on a line?)  Then they could "borrow" the concept from 
the hated Moors, but at the same time not admit they 
used the same symbol?  Or at least think they were as
opposite in belief from the Moors as they could get?

That is a just a weird hypothesis of mine.  As the
religious animosity of the period could conceive of no
bounds of twisting the concepts of outsider thought.  

And did the adoption of Arabic numerals require church 
approval at some point?  I seem to recall the church
holding on to Roman numbers longer than say, German
bankers or Venetian traders.


Tracy Johnson
Measurement Specialties, Inc. 

BT







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