Why is zero less than one?
In: 0
If you have 1 apple and I come along and take that Apple away you have zero apples which is less then the one you had before I took it away
put simply, numbers started existing to count how many things existed. but there eventually needed to be a symbol that represented nothing or something that’s less than one (on a whole number scale). and that became zero, hence it being less than one.
0 is an important placeholder digit in our number system. The first uses of zero in human history can be traced back to around 5,000 years ago, to ancient Mesopotamia. There, it was used to represent the absence of a digit in a string of numbers. When we consider a number line – the numbers which are on the right side of 0 are all positive numbers and all the numbers which are all left of the 0 are all negative numbers. 0 is smaller to all the positive numbers and 0 is greater to all negative numbers.
not really for 5 year olds but:
Assume 0>1
1+(-1) =0 that’s the definition of a negative number as the additive inverse
1+(-1) = 0 > 1
1 + (-1) > 1
1+(-1) +1 > 1+1 add one to both sides
1 + 0 > 1+1
1 > 1+1
1 > 2 this we know isn’t true so the initial assumption is wrong.
In set theory you start with 0 sets of 0.
Now you have 1 set of 0
Now you have 2 sets of 0,1
and you just keep working up.
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