1. Where did the number Zero come from? the actual number zero (0) was first
used in India circa the 9th century BCE. The concept of zero was known earlier
(arguably as far back as the Babylonians), but it was not used in calculations and
not treated as a true number.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_did_zero_come_from
2. When did it spread to Europe?
3. Name the man who brought it to Europe? Fibonacci
http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibBio.html
4. What city in Italy first used the number Zero?
5. Describe what was wrong with the roman numerals number system? The
Roman numeral system did not include zero and Romans had no concept of it in
their arithmetic. Which is one reason why Roman numerals are so clumsy for
calculation, though it is possible. They tended to use an abacus for arithmetic and
that device does have the concept of zero built in - it is represented by an empty
row. But it was the Indian and Arab mathematicians after the end of the Roman
empire who invented our present system where we have the concept of 'place'
and have a distinct symbol to represent zero or an empty column. So when we
write '10' for example the zero tells us that the '1' is worth ten times as much as it
would be if the number was just 1. The value of this system for arithmetic and
calculation and for depicting numbers of any size is so great that the Indo-Arabic
way of writing numbers is now almost universal and Roman numerals are
confined exclusively as 'counting' numbers rather than as calculating numbers.
http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/roman/howtheywork.htm
6. Why were people afraid of the new number system?
7. Contrast the roman numerals to the new number system
8. What difference did the new number system make in Europe?
9. Plan your own number system.
10. How could the number Zero been invented in two different parts of the planet
by two totally unrelated civilizations at about the same time?