时差N小时:数字零的由来(下)

Older cultures like the Babylonians used a markerof some sort to designate the space where nonumber goes, such as what comes between six andnine in the number six hundred and nine. TheGreeks even used a round figure similar to themodern zero. It wasn’t until the Indianmathematicians got a hold of zero that peoplestarted thinking of it as a number that could be usedas more than a placeholder for other numbers. Itsounds weird, but that was a major step forward inmathematics!

【生词注释】

Babylonian n.巴比伦人

marker 标记

designate vt.指定

mathematician n.数学家

placeholder n.占位符

weird adj.奇怪

【参考译文】

古文化比如巴比伦人用某种标记来指定没有数字的位置，比如数字609，6和9之间的数字位置。古希腊人用一个类似现代0的圆形数字来表示。直到印度数学家发明了0，人们才开始思考0对于其他数字来说不只可以用作一个占位符。听起来很奇怪，但那是数学界一个重要的进步。