I do realize that this particular board is dedicated to language but I ran into something which I think might pique the interest of most people concerning our "numerical" vocabulary. Some of the words designating the lack of something are nothing, none, null, nil, nada, etc., which is great for the written or verbalized "word." But, the DIGIT meaning the lack of something or "0" (zero) did not come about until around the 3rd century B.C. Moreover, the digit didn't even occur in the western world until around the 12th century A.D. Here's a small link and a short read to what I hope will facinate you guys as much as it does me. There are other links available which give dates, places, and archaeological information but this was the shortest read I could find. http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-zero
That was something interesting to learn about. I find it especially interesting that the zero started out as just a placement in an amount such as 400 as oppose to being a stand alone number. It took years for that to come around. This is something that could of been taught in schools, but no we don't get interesting tidbits like this to help us grasp numbers and their importance.
Interesting reading I missed out when coming first. Sometime ago I went crazy registering a very short domain name with a "0" in its name. I was trying to figure out how to handle that zero in terms of meaning something as it read like and "o" letter on the address bar, but it was effectively a zero. If I knew this before about the number, I would had something interesting to link such domain with
Deep in the jungle, an intrepid scholar locates a symbol of power and mystery This inscription, written in Old Khmer, reads “The Caka era reached year 605 on the fifth day of the waning moon.” The dot (at right) is now recognized as the oldest known version of our zero. (Amir Aczel)
Great stuff Joe!! On the lighter side though, I am now not as depressed over our present executive branch. We in the U.S. have only had to put up with 7 years of Caka while those poor folks did it for 605 years and 5 days or longer.