Page 2 / News, Trends, Gossip and Stuff To Do : Bits ‘n’ Pieces : Zeroing In on Numerical Hero
The number zero may be empty, but that isn’t to say it lacks meaning. Consider the big Four-O birthday, zero tolerance, the odometer rolling to a string of zeros. Or zero, as in big fat loser.
For math-phobes, numbers that end in zero are friends--easy to divide, easy to get our arms around. Zero grounds us in an aesthetic way, with a nice round look and full-circle feel.
So, mythology notwithstanding, it’s no surprise that the year 2000 has a primordial appeal.
“Arithmetic in almost every culture in civilization has been based on the number 10, which has no decent mathematical reason,” said USC mathematics professor Solomon W. Golomb. “It’s just that we have 10 fingers. Every language has special words for tens, hundreds or thousands.”
The year 2000 also has a psychological urgency, said Golomb, whose research includes calendars and mathematical puzzles.
“[Most] people don’t live long enough to encounter more than one year with a number ending in three zeros,” he said. “We’re a unique generation.”
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