Monday, April 30, 2018

Zero - the omnipotent nought

It is tempting to look at this circular figure as hollow, signifying nothing. But look deeper, and you see it is extremely powerful.

Add more of it to an integer and the value increases ten-fold. (2, 20, 200)

Place one or many of them in the middle of a number, and the value changes depending on where you have placed and how many you have placed. (11, 101, 1001, 10101)

Indeed, its power comes from where it is. Add any number of zeros after the decimal point, and it just means nothing.

Though so powerful, it's very diplomatic and neutral too: right in the centre of the number line, neither negative nor positive. (-1, 0, +1)

For that reason, it's a good point to start over, if you have lost track, by resetting to the centre point. Think of the weighing machine.

So diplomatic, it will not be party to any situation where you have to divide something. No, you can't divide a number by zero.

At the same time, you try to raise any number to the power of zero, and you always get just one.

(This is the last post in the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2018" series. It was good fun thinking of a word and blogging on it everyday. Looking forward to next year's challenge.  To read the posts on each day of this month, there is link to them on the top of this page.)

17 comments:

  1. Congratulations Pradeep on successfully completing the AtoZ Challenge.

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  2. Very interesting post concluding the challenge successfully

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  3. Thanks so much for visiting my blog the last few days - I just had to pop over and see what you'd been writing and congratulate you on making it through to the end of the Challenge too!

    Leanne | www.crestingthehill.com.au
    Z for Zero in on your target

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  4. Ah, the power of zero. In numerology, it's an amplifier. Some of us aspire to reach zero...

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    1. I didn't know about the numerology angle. Thanks, Liz

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  5. This is a fun post to end on! Congratulations! Thanks for visiting my blog, and I will keep up with your future endeavors.

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  6. An ode to the most enigmatic number on the number line is the perfect way to end the challenge. Great job Pradeep. Loved the variety of quirky subjects you covered. I enjoyed learning a lot of obscure facts. Congratulations on completing the challenge.

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    1. Thank you, Kanika. Enjoyed thinking of subjects to write on, and writing on them. Glad you liked reading them. :-)

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    2. enjoyed our interactions through this journey. see https://kanikag.com/women-relationships-building-relationships.html

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  7. Nice post to end the challenge with. Many congratulations on completing the challenge.

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  8. Aha! Zero and it's power. Interesting post, Pradeep. Good to meet you through this challenge :)

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    1. Thank you, Shilpa. Good to meet you too! :-)

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