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

In mathematics there are lots of different types of numbers. These numbers are categorised in several ways. For example:

Positive numbers: 1, 3, 5.5, 10 etc

Integers: -5, -1, 4, 50 etc

Real numbers: -1.5, 6, Pi

Irrational numbers, like Pi and the square root of 2 (irrational numbers can’t be expressed as a fraction of two integers)

Then there are numbers that are not real, like the square root of -1, which is called an imaginary number

Historically mathematicians have debated what category, if any, zero fits into. Does it fit with the integers? Is it rational? is it real? Some of these debates have been quite big disputes