Is 0 a number?

[mrbatfink]

I say no... almost everyone else i know says yes.

To me 0 is just a representation of the absence of a number...

You can not HAVE 0 of anything!!!

Well what do ppl think???

[mrbatfink]

Cheers Peeps...its been fun, helped pass the day at work.

Tomorrow we will discuss the universe.........I have a few ideas i am sure you would all love to debate.

[CT]

Sounds like fun. Slightly more my area of knowledge.

[JudgeJ]

I�m not going to be dragged into this, except to put you right on one point, mrbatfink.

In loosehead�s average calculation the zero most certainly did have an effect. The accepted method used to calculate mean averages is to add to values up and divide by n, the number in the count. Ignore the zero and the calculation would have been (4+5)/2 = 4.5 - completely wrong.

In arithmetic it is usually wise to accommodate all eventualities into the principle you are adopting, not just fit the principles to the values that you have. I don�t know what skills you learnt in order to practice electronic engineering. It seems that logic and reasoning were not amongst them. You should listen to your friends more.

Did you post this question to start a five minute argument, or are you going for the full half hour?

[BigMac]

Four and a half hours after this 5-minute argument started, can I ask a question? (I have mathematics 'O' level only, I'm afraid, so not sure if I'm qualified to contribute.]

What about the positive effect of 0 as a number. You cannot have 10 or 100 without it, so what does it represent here - it's clearly not the absence of something.... or even the "representation of the absence of a number".

Help!

[Loosehead]

I the situation you are referring to originally the 0 was just a space so 101 would have been written as 1 1 but this caused confusion especially when the "space" was at the end so it was decided that it was best to put a ring around the space, viola

[jimmer]

god, isn't it great that the simple questions cause the most argument. according to the dictionary Zero is a cardinal number and they should know.

jim

[PhilBy]

If 0 was a number you would need 11 fingers to count to 10 :-)

[mrbatfink]

judgej

The count is represented by the number of people which is 3 (a, b and c). dont drop a person because he has no apples thats just discrimination

[mrbatfink]

The question was asked to keep me entertained at work, so i did not have to practice my chosen profession of electronics.......

[mibn2cweus]

If everyone would just choose up sides we could start

World War Zero!

[JudgeJ]

Well, mrbatfink, burning the midnight oil did nothing for your reasoning. So, in the average calculation, you�ll include the person with no apples in the count, but not include the number they hold. And you talk of discrimination!

I cannot become further involved with this because your 23:59 post confirms what I thought yesterday: either you are doing this for a wind up (in which case you almost, but not quite, succeeded) or you have no power of reasoning.

[fo3nix]

PhilBy.. "If 0 was a number you would need 11 fingers to count to 10 :-) "

no. we naturally start counting from 1.

if you did want to start counting from 0 (like some languages do for computers) then you'd count from 0 to 9, as you only have 10 fingers.

[BigMac]

I thought I only had eight fingers...

[tony1941]

mrbatfink: To return to your second post on this thread - and your later revelation of profession.........Before you did the "electronics" bit, didn't you learn the "electric" part? Don't you know the difference between reactance and resistance? Remember, calculation of the impedance of a circuit element requires not only a negative number, but the square root of it!!!!! (or should we start another thread just about i - or j, if you insist)

[pagey]

You are all literally arguing over nothing.

[mibn2cweus]

Since when is 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.0 nothing?

[pagey]

when you miltiply it by 0

[milkybarkid]

0 is a number because on the GCSE maths exam you have to name all the integers (whole numbers) between -2> and <3 and 0 is one of them!