The story of zero: How ‘nothing’ changed the world
Before it could be used, it had to be invented.
“This invention of the zero and the way we write our numerals today is what is now the basis of all modern technology,” Princeton mathematics professor Manjul Bhargava told IDEAS.
“We often take it for granted. But it’s one of the greatest inventions of all time, really.” […]
Zero ultimately took hundreds of years to evolve from a placeholder into a full-fledged number in its own right — one that could be used in complex calculations.
That development is credited to the ancient Indian mathematician Brahmagupta, who developed a system of rules for calculations involving zero in the year 628 A.D. […]
Yet hundreds of years after Brahmagupta first incorporated it into his calculations, the number zero continues to confound us.
Full episode & transcript: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/zero-number-series-ideas-cbc-1.6977700
Nine: A number of Synchronicity
Contributors include Amit Chaudhuri, Dheepa Sundaram and Manjul Bhargava
Rasa is Aesthetic Emotion. Aesthetic Emotion is Rasa. Rasa literally means juice.
Nectar is one slightly fanciful translation. Let’s say juice.
Sweets are dipped in ras. So it’s any kind of enlivening elixir or juice.
I’m Amit Chaudhary. I’m a writer and a musician. I live in Calcutta, which is where I am right now.
Rasa, R-A-S-A, a Sanskrit term. In Indian aesthetics, there are nine rasas, denoting the nine emotions that are stirred by works of art.
So the earliest use of the word Rasa really means anything that’s liquid or fluid. But then beginning around the earliest centuries of the common era, the word Rasa is picked up in a tradition of literary theory in Sanskrit, in which it’s used to denote what’s usually described as aestheticized emotion. And the idea of Rasa really relates to this question of what is it that’s actually happening when we perceive a work of art.”
Amit Chaudhuri is a singer and the author of Sojourn, A Strange and Sublime Address and Finding The Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music.
Dheepa Sundaram is a professor of Hindu Studies at the University of Denver.
Amit Chaudhuri is a singer and the author of Sojourn, A Strange and Sublime Address and Finding The Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music.
Full episode & transcript: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/nine-number-series-synchronicity-1.6979794