This week's question comes from John R. who asks:

I'm doing a school report on the origin of numbers, and was wondering if you could tell me who invented the 0 or (zero)? I cant seem to find any info on it! Help!

Answer:

Good question, John!

The concept was originally born in India. Their decimal system (similar to ours), used an empty space which represented a zero. An empty space was also used to place emphasis on the separation of numbers as well. A dot was later created to represent a zero.

However, it wasn't until 3rd century AD when the Mayans later developed the "0" or zero for their calendars. However, evidence tells us that it wasn't used until 7th century AD.

Later, the number zero survived through hundreds of centuries until it found it's way to Europe.

So, it was the Indians and Mayans who invented the 0.