Black dot in 1,800-year-old Indian manuscript is first ‘zero’, say researchers


The birch bark scroll is known as the Bakhshali manuscript after the village, which is now in Pakistan, where it was found buried in 1881.

A black dot on a third-century Indian manuscript has been identified by Oxford University as the first recorded use of the mathematical symbol for zero, 500 years earlier than previously thought.

"Scientists from the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries, have used carbon dating to trace the figure's origins to the famous ancient Indian scroll," the university said in a statement.................Read more

 

Source: The Hindu


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