The History of Zero

In 628 AD, Indian astronomer Brahmagupta described zero as the result of subtracting a number from itself. Over the following centuries, Indian mathematicians continued to refine their understanding of zero. The Greeks stumbled upon it when they plundered the remains of the Babylonian Empire in 331 BC. But there may have been a philosophical reason the Greeks never developed zero themselves. They believed it couldn't exist. It was over a thousand years before zero got another chance in Europe. In 1175 AD, an Italian merchant in Algeria had a son named Leonardo Bonacci. He spent his childhood learning from all the best Arab mathematicians. They introduced him to an elegant system of numbers that merchants