Nothing - why zero is so important in Mathematics
John McCormick
- Region:
- Anywhere
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Hobby
- Fee:
- Paid: £75 plus expenses if required for long travel
- Category:
- Science
- Updated:
- 20th January 2024
This talk is all about nothing. Well, actually, it’s about the introduction of the concept of zero into Western mathematics. Why is zero so important? It's not what we wanted to see on our exam scores, it's not what we’d like to see in our bank account balance.
So I guess it is important, but how did it get developed to fill this important need?
Views: 370 | Enquiries: 0About John McCormick
I've recently retired and one of the things I'm looking forward to is to spend more time speaking and telling stories. I regularly give talks in my local village in the Cotswolds, the fabulous Hook Norton. These talks have ranged from the history of Bletchley Park to the Apollo space programme, to the history of flight to the story of how they solved how to measure Longitude. I'm happy to give these talks to other groups, or to research and then speak on a topic of interest to groups.
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by John McCormick
- Crossword puzzles, Bombes, Colossus and the birth of modern computing
- The Race to the moon - The US manned lunar exploration programme
- The Wright Brothers to Concorde in 60 years. Crikey!
- Longitude - The Quest for east and west
- Are computers really that smart? Or do we just make them look smart?
- Wall Paintings - a picture really is worth a thousand words
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