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Zeroes Are Very Important

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Posted by Herb S. on January 12, 2001 05:39:00 UTC

Zeroes are essential to mathematics. The number system we have requires zero as a number.

As for computers, numbers are represented as rows of zeros and ones (usually 32). Without the zeroes (in this case as place markers), computers couldn't function.

To clarify the above, zero has two roles, (1) place marker or digit, so that numbers can be expressed easily, and (2) a number itself. The whole controversy about the start of the millenium (2000 or 2001) comes about because at the time the current numbering system for years was invented, there was no year zero (people were still using Roman numerals, where there was no zero), thus the first millenium started at 1 and ended at 1000.

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