How has the concept of zero acceptance historically been controversial?

Question

I just watched Young Sheldon, and the episode discussing the zero dilemma really intrigued me.

In: Mathematics

Answer 1

It’s because of how we used to use numbers.

We used to use them to count things and we only counted things that there were more than one of. It makes sense to say, “How many bananas do I have.” It makes very little sense to say, “How many bananas do I not have?”

So any time ancient people used numbers there was always at least one of that thing.