Search arXiv⌕ Search

arXiv · 0707.3579

Origin of the numerals, Zero concept

Abstract

The partisans of the hypothesis of the Indian origin of the numerals create confusion between the history of the Indian mathematics and the history of our modern numerals. To argue the thesis of the Indian origin of the numbers they confound between: the "intuitive zero " of Brahmagupta, that means ''nothing'' and which is the difference of two equal numbers, the "numeral zero" used in the representation of the numbers and the "mathematical zero" defined by the modern mathematicians. "Sifr" designate the "numeral zero" and "Shunya" designate the "intuitive zero". The word "Sifr" is not a traduction of the word "Shunya" and does not derive from the Indian word "Shunya", since the word "Sifr" and its derivatives existed in Arabic long before the appearance of zero itself The facts that the "intuitive zero" and the "mathematical zero" are represented currently by the "numerals zero" symbol "0" are only consequences of the representation of the numbers by the "Ghubari" numerals

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Ahmed Boucenna. 2007-07-24. Origin of the numerals, Zero concept. https://arxiv.org/abs/0707.3579

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics

This declaration calls for action to address the challenges posed by the use of artificial intelligence within mathematics research. Technological developments have repeatedly transformed the practice of mathematics. Recent artificial intelligence technologies, including symbolic and neural methods for the generation and formalization of mathematics, may already have initiated a significant chapter in this long history. Among researchers, artificial intelligence has produced a wide range of reactions: enthusiasm for its potential to yield new discoveries; intimidation by the pace of developments; indifference to these rapid changes; and concern for the implications, both for mathematics and in wider society. Mathematicians have a choice about whether and how to adopt artificial intelligence in the conduct of their research. They also have a responsibility to ensure the continued flourishing of the discipline. This Declaration calls upon mathematicians to exercise this responsibility, and provides recommendations for individuals, institutions, government, and industry. Although we adopt the perspective of mathematical research, much of what we write applies equally to other aspects of mathematics. This includes work in the broader mathematical sciences, education, mentoring, publishing, funding, science policy, and use of mathematics in the wider world.

math.HO↗

The Siren Call of Silicon Leviathan: Reflections on blowup and Aufklärungsdämmerung

On 8 September 2026 OpenAI announced a proof of finite-time blowup for the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with smooth data and forcing: 166 pages produced in 88 hours by ten thousand agents, certified by 616,000 lines of Lean, and read in full, at the moment of this writing (20 September 2026), by no human being. This essay asks what such an artifact -- text, certificate and announcement -- is, and what follows from accepting it as a proof. Mathematics was the Enlightenment's existence proof of autonomous reason: for three centuries every certified theorem could be understood by anyone who followed its demonstration, and the distance between the two was zero by construction. A certified proof no one can follow reopens that distance, and a community that accepts it adopts, without a vote, the constitution Hobbes drafted for the Leviathan, in which authority and not truth makes the law. The essay distinguishes the demonstrated from the revealed (certified); names, in Panofsky's terms, the coming age a Middle Ages in reverse and its authority a subhuman superintelligence; and locates the turning point not in what the machine produces but in what we accept. Since acceptance is the one sovereign sanction the companies cannot manufacture, it proposes a covenant in place of either boycott or capitulation: the community's cooperation given to that producer which strictly observes its practices of legibility, disclosure and responsibility, withheld from any that does not, and the covenant kept plural, with the history of the Indigenous nations among rival empires as its guide. The Sirens of the title promise knowledge, not understanding. Daemmerung is the light at both ends of the day, and whether this Aufklaerungsdaemmerung is a dusk or a dawn depends on what is done at the moment of acceptance, which is not yet past.

math.HO↗

What math means to me

This is a personal essay about how I see math, what I value about it, and what it means to me.

math.HO↗