It is not written. The Romans didn’t have a sign to represent zero because they simply didn’t need to represent nothing. This need only arose when a positional numerical system was created, that is, a system in which the position of the digits gives them different values. Complicated, right?! To understand correctly, think of the numbers 35 (Arabic numeral) and XI (11, in Romans). Now reverse the position of the digits and you will have 53 and IX (9). In the Arabic number, “3” represents three tens, in the first case, and three units, in the second. In the Roman example, “X” represents a ten in both cases. Therefore, the Roman system is not positional. “So what?”, you ask. Hence, in a positional system, zero makes all the difference. And realizing this, the Hindus revolutionized mathematics, creating a numerical representation that made it possible to develop calculations on paper – the Romans only did math on the abacus (that frame full of balls that run from one side to the other). “There are those who say that zero is one of the greatest inventions of humanity, for having opened space for the creation of all the mathematical operations that we know today”, says mathematician Luiz Imenes, author of the book Os Números na História da Civilização, among others. . In fact, although the Hindus are geniuses, they took advantage of another stroke of genius from the Babylonians. It was they who created the positional system and, as a consequence, the notion of zero as well. To count 301 sheep, for example, a shepherd would put a ball in a basket that represented the units, none in the tens and three in the hundreds. The Babylonians wrote this down on paper (at the time, a clay tablet) and in the place of “no ball” they put an empty space (3_1). The Hindus perfected the idea by creating a sign for zero (called a shúnya). Then they passed the creation to the Arabs, who invented the system we use today.
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