Today we are publishing a correction. It appears that this powerful number was invented in quite a different time and place than we had thought.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BODLEIAN LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
The birch bark "Bakhshali Manuscript" was probably used by Silk Road traders practicing arithmetic during their journeys to distant marketplaces.
What I continue to find most fascinating is that, while this concept was originally created to support Accounting, it has gone on to become a central tool in fields of study from Physics to Calculus and beyond.
Any way you look at it, there is tremendous power in nothing, or zero at least.
Best regards, Peter