'Cipher' and 'zero' are the same Arabic word.
Sifr, 'empty', translated the Indian shunya, zero; it gave Latin cifra and Fibonacci's zephyrum, which became zero.
The events
- Brahmagupta and the rules of zero628 · Bhinmal, India. The Indian mathematician Brahmagupta, in his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, first set out rules for calculating with zero and negative numbers. The Indian decimal place-value system with zero passed through the Arabs to Europe and underpins modern arithmetic.
- Fibonacci's Liber Abaci1202 · Pisa. In 1202 Leonardo of Pisa, known as Fibonacci, published Liber Abaci, introducing Europeans to Hindu–Arabic numerals and positional notation. Merchants soon saw how much easier calculation became.
More amazing facts
- 589 Toilet paper is first mentioned in 589, the year the Sui reunited China.
- 600 'Checkmate' is Persian shāh māt, 'the king is helpless'. Around 600 chess reached Sasanian Persia from India as chatrang, and spread from there to the Arabs and Europe.
- 607 A Chinese emperor took offence at Japan over the sun. In 607 Prince Shōtoku wrote to him: 'The Son of Heaven where the sun rises, to the Son of Heaven where the sun sets.' Emperor Yang was furious.
- 615 · 683 The Maya king Pakal took the throne at 12 and ruled for 68 years, from 615 to 683.
- 615 · 618 · 622 Within seven years three great eras began on three sides of the world: in 615 twelve-year-old Pakal became king of Maya Palenque, in 618 the Tang dynasty was founded, and in 622 Muhammad made the Hijra.
- 628 · 1202 Nearly six centuries passed between the first rules for zero and their arrival in Europe.