I just watched Young Sheldon, and the episode discussing the zero dilemma really intrigued me.
In: Mathematics
I’m not sure if “controversial” is the word I would use, but zero is a higher level mathematical concept than it seems, and isn’t immediately useful to people who only deal with tangible math concepts. You never count zero potatoes. You never mix bread dough with a zero-to-something ratio. You never build a house with a side that is zero feet long. If you ever need to describe something that has a quantity or size of zero, there are other words that already mean that. “None.”
Even philosophically, it’s kind of complex to describe the absence of something, especially if that something wasn’t there before (“never existed” vs “there was some and now it’s gone”).
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