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0 is useless? (123 history)
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by
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dustin
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DUSTIN                            2023-09-18 22:03
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NOTHING IS MORE INTERESTING THAN NOTHING - THAT'S WHAT Κ THINKS WHILE READING ALL ABOUT THE HISTORY OF ZERO, A VERY SPECIAL DIGIT WHICH TOOK A LONG TIME UNTIL IT WAS ACCEPTED AS A NUMBER AT ALL!  
  
"0" HAS A LOT OF DIFFERENT NAMES IN ENGLISH - BESIDE THE MATHEMATICAL NAME "ZERO", ALSO "NIL", "NAUGHT" AND SIMPLY "OH" ARE VERY COMMON. MATHEMATICALLY, IT IS DEFINED AS "THE COUNT OF AN EMPTY SET". BUT WHY EVEN WRITE SOMETHING FOR NOTHING? IN FACT, IT TOOK ANCIENT PEOPLE QUITE LONG UNTIL THEY EVEN GOT THE IDEA TO INVENT A SYMBOL FOR "NOTHING"!  
  
THAT'S ALSO WHAT THE CAVE MAP TRIES TO SYMBOLIZE - FOR A LONG TIME, THE CONCEPT OF A NUMBER ZERO JUST DID NOT EXIST! (FOR EXAMPLE, EVEN THE ROMANS STILL DIDN'T USE ZERO!)  
  
HOWEVER, ANCIENT PEOPLE ALREADY FACED SOME PROBLEMS WHICH, FROM TODAY'S PERSPECTIVE, COULD EASILY HAVE BEEN SOLVED BY INVENTING THE NUMBER ZERO. FOR EXAMPLE:  
| THE BABYLONIANS ALREADY USED A PLACE-VALUE SYSTEM TO WRITE NUMBERS (BASE 60), AND WITHOUT A ZERO, THEY COULD NOT DISTINGUISH MAGNITUDES. FOR EXAMPLE, HOW COULD WE DISTINGUISH BETWEEN 36 AND 360000000 WITHOUT ZEROS?  
| ALSO, EARLY MATHEMATICIANS USED FORMULAS WHERE IT COULD HAPPEN THAT A NUMBER IS SUBTRACTED FROM ITSELF. WITHOUT ZERO, THEY ALWAYS HAD TO TREAT THESE CASES AS "SPECIAL CASES WITHOUT RESULT".  
  
I FOUND TWO DIFFERENT, MAYBE INDEPENDANT PROOFS FOR EARLY OCCURANCES OF "ZERO":  
  
\ ANCIENT INDIA: WHEN THE PLACE-VALUE SYSTEM OF BASE 10 BECAME POPULAR, A PLACEHOLDER FOR "NOTHING" BECAME MORE AND MORE INDISPENSIBLE, AND THIS PLACEHOLDER STARTED AS A SIMPLE DOT (SEE THE LEFT SHAPE IN THE CAVE MAP).  
  
\ MATHEMATICS ORIGINATES IN ANCIENT GREECE, AND GREEK MATHEMATICIANS WERE AMONG THE FIRST WHO FOUND THE NUMBER ZERO VERY USEFUL FOR CALCULATIONS - AFTER ALL, NEGATIVE NUMBERS WOULD BE UNTHINKABLE WITHOUT ZERO BECAUSE, IF YOU CAN CALCULATE 4 MINUS 7, THEN WHY NOT 8 MINUS 8 AS WELL? THESE GREEKS ALREADY USED A CIRCLE TO WRITE ZERO (RIGHT SHAPE IN THE MAP), AND THIS PROBABLY CAME FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF THE GREEK WORD "OUDEN" = "NOTHING".  
  
SO IT MIGHT ABSOLUTELY BE NOT A COINCIDENCE THAT "ZERO" LOOKS LIKE AN "O"! :D  
  
THAT'S IT FOR THE MAIN SERIES! IT WAS BOTH FUN AND INSTRUCTIVE FOR ME TO DO THE RESEARCH, AND I'M FAR MORE MOTIVATED TO LEARN ABOUT HISTORY WHEN I INTEND TO MAKE BOULDER DASH CAVES OUT OF IT. WHY DIDN'T MY TEACHERS AT SCHOOL EXPLAIN HISTORY LIKE THAT? I WOULD HAVE BEEN FAR MORE ATTENTIVE...! :D :D  
  
THERE'S STILL ONE MORE BONUS CAVE TO COME - darkstoorm WROTE UNDER THE LEVEL 9 CAVE THAT THERE'S STILL PLENTY OF TIME REMAINING - LET'S SEE IF LEVEL 10 CAN CHALLENGE HIM AT LAST... ;)  
  
RANDOM SEED 0 (AS IN THIS CAVE) IS USED IN MANY BD1 CAVES, WHICH IS WHY THE RANDOM FILL OF ALL THESE CAVES LOOKS SIMILAR:  
B/2, C/1, D/1, F/1, K/1, L/1 AND M/1.

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DARKSTOORM                        2023-09-18 22:05
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OK, THAT KINDA GOT ME WORRIED! :D :D

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ALTERMAVEN                        2023-09-19 00:45
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INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH, "ZERO" IS OFTEN USED TO SYMBOLISE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS, BUT IT IS BASED ON THE SAME GENERAL CONCEPT OF "ZERO" BEING "ORIGIN": EITHER BACK TO IT (NOTHING) OR STARTING FROM IT (BEGINNING). FUNNILY ENOUGH, "ZERO" HAS A FEW LITTLE NOTES.  
  
TO "ZERO IN" MEANS TO REACH THE FOCAL POINT OF SOMETHING  
WHEN SOMETHING ENTERS "YEAR ZERO" IT IS USUALLY A FINALITY OF A PROJECT, AND/OR THE START OF A NEW CHAPTER  
  
...AND "TO GO TO ZERO" MEANS TO COME TO A COMPLETE STOP, WHICH ISN'T SOMETHING YOU SHOULD DO IN A TIMED LEVEL!

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ROB GILBERT                       2023-09-19 14:37
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OH, A BONUS CAVE! THANKS A LOT, VERY NICE! :) AND VERY CURIOUS TO SEE WHAT THE NEXT ONE WILL BE, TOO.