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EPISODE · Jun 11, 2026 · 12 MIN

Inventing Nothing

from Horde of Rabbits

The idea of "nothing" as a number seems obvious today, but it took millennia to develop. While the Babylonians and Maya used zero as a placeholder, it was Indian mathematician Brahmagupta who first treated zero as a number in its own right around 628 CE, defining rules for arithmetic with zero. The concept traveled to the Islamic world via al-Khwarizmi and eventually to Europe through Fibonacci in the 13th century. Without zero, there would be no binary code, no computers, no modern mathematics. The symbol "0" we use today evolved from a dot used in Indian manuscripts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jun 11, 2026

What this episode covers

The idea of "nothing" as a number seems obvious today, but it took millennia to develop. While the Babylonians and Maya used zero as a placeholder, it was Indian mathematician Brahmagupta who first treated zero as a number in its own right around 628 CE, defining rules for arithmetic with zero. The concept traveled to the Islamic world via al-Khwarizmi and eventually to Europe through Fibonacci in the 13th century. Without zero, there would be no binary code, no computers, no modern mathematics. The symbol "0" we use today evolved from a dot used in Indian manuscripts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of Horde of Rabbits?

This episode is 12 minutes long.

When was this Horde of Rabbits episode published?

This episode was published on June 11, 2026.

What is this episode about?

The idea of "nothing" as a number seems obvious today, but it took millennia to develop. While the Babylonians and Maya used zero as a placeholder, it was Indian mathematician Brahmagupta who first treated zero as a number in its own right around...

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