In the spirit of LoB...it's 682 AD, and it's census time:

OK, question 8. How many wings have you got ?

How many what ?

Wings ?

Oh, wings. Let me see now. Erm.

You must know how many wings you've got ?

I'm just counting them, just a sec.

Hurry up.

Well it's not 1, I know that.

3 ?

No, not 3. And, it's not 4 either.

2 ?

No, that's the thing, it's not 2. But...

But what ?

But it's not more than 4 either.

Hang on, hang on. You're saying you haven't got 1 wing, 2 wings, 3 wings or 4 wings. But you haven't got more than 4 wings either ? You winding me up ?

No.

So how many have you got ?

I don't know. It's just.....impossible.

I can't fit impossible in the box, you're going to have to give me a number.

OK, well put 1 then.

1 it is.

This is a good one, PI
lays out the framework of how nothing happened, and why it is so important.
https://www.livescience.com/27853-who-i ... -zero.html

Amongst the gems..
Medieval religious leaders in Europe did not support the use of zero, van der Hoek said. They saw it as satanic. "God was in everything that was. Everything that was not was of the devil," she said.

Wallin points out that the Italian government was suspicious of Arabic numbers and outlawed the use of zero.
Merchants continued to use it illegally and secretively, and the Arabic word for zero, "sifr," brought about the word "cipher," which not only means a numeric character, but also came to mean "code."

"So commonplace has zero become that few, if any, realize it astounding role in the lives of every single person in the world," said Gobets.

Nothing is a big deal. Who would have thought..?

I'm sceptical Stern. They talk in the article with wonder of different civilizations independently inventing the zero, as if that's some massively unliekly scenario. To me it's no less likely than different civilisations inventing the cconetps of day and night. It's inevitable that they'll do this.

Also they talk about the development of 0 from a 'place holder' into a number in its own right. But it's the same thing. I don't see how it matters whether it's depcited as 2 brackets, or a gap or a little round circle. It's still the concept of allowing the numbering system to start again, so that you can use 10s 100s and 1000s instead of inventing infinite different individual numbers.

Maybe there's some truth in some cultures thinking the zero was satanic or whatever, but I just don't believe that the romans - who built the biggest concrete dome that was ever built before the 20th century - didn't have a number for 0.

I'm not being contrary mate, and I am by no means an expert, but it just strikes me as something some guys have come up with to sell a book or two. Anyway, sorry for commenting against the flow, just my thoughts on the matter.

EDIT: You're right, the Romans didn't use a 0 did they. Forget what I said.

^^^ lololololol

Bloody mathematics - gobbledeedoo in this modern day and age, i reckon.
I was the class genius in Maths until first year high school when they started throwing letters in there - A's B's X's Y''s
after that my science career was fucked.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 4:11 am ^^^ lololololol

Bloody mathematics - gobbledeedoo in this modern day and age, i reckon.
I was the class genius in Maths until first year high school when they started throwing letters in there - A's B's X's Y''s
after that my science career was fucked.

I was about the same as that tbf.

Just on the romans then. It's interesting that they didn't use a zero (although modern counting systems of course do use their system of counting in tens), but they must have understood the concept. If you'd said to Marcus Aerilius what's V-V, I doubt he'd have scratched his head and said "well blow me down with a feather, that's satan's work". And they must have had a word for it, even if they didn't express it in their counting system. Anyway, all interesting stuff, and good to see that the Khmers were involved somewhere along the line (I know they did a lot of cool stuff back in the day).

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 4:11 am ^^^ lololololol

Bloody mathematics - gobbledeedoo in this modern day and age, i reckon.
I was the class genius in Maths until first year high school when they started throwing letters in there - A's B's X's Y''s
after that my science career was fucked.

Totally agree if you didn't get 100% right in maths test you made a mistake

Maths is pretty rigid (except when you get to the outer limits, i believe)
I just dont get on well with rigid systems - computers, mechanics etc ,or rigid people.
Reading fluid systems is my interest.