Samantha+Gait's+work+for+unit+5

=** Zero **= = = =Samantha Gait 7 unit 5= Questions 2 questions

INVESTIGATE: **__ Unit 5 investigation __**
 * The six main stages:**

Problem: how did ancients us numbers

Analisation: for our unit 5) many people don't know how our ancesters used numbers and that isn't good.

Describing the problem: I would like to learn more about numbers and mack people more awer of it in particular about zero and how people in the olden days used them.

Brief: I am going to create a power point to present what I have learnt during this unit and how the number zero became. In my power point I will show how the number zero came to Europe and I will contrast the roman numerals to the Arabic numerals.

**History**

By the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, the [|Babylonian mathematics] had a sophisticated [|sexagesimal] positional numeral system. The lack of a positional value (or zero) was indicated by a space between sexagesimal numerals. By 300 BC, a punctuation symbol (two slanted wedges) was co-opted as a [|placeholder] in the same [|Babylonian system]. In a tablet unearthed at [|Kish] (dating from about 700 BC), the scribe Bêl-bân-aplu wrote his zeros with three hooks, rather than two slanted wedges.

The Babylonian placeholder was not a true zero because it was not used alone. Nor was it used at the end of a number. Thus numbers like 2 and 120 (2×60), 3 and 180 (3×60), 4 and 240 (4×60), looked the same because the larger numbers lacked a final sexagesimal placeholder. Only context could differentiate them.

Records show that the [|ancient Greeks] seemed unsure about the status of zero as a number. They asked themselves, "How can nothing be something?", leading to [|philosophical] and, by the Medieval period, religious arguments about the nature and existence of zero and the [|vacuum]. The [|paradoxes] of [|Zeno of Elea] depend in large part on the uncertain interpretation of zero

The concept of zero as a number and not merely a symbol for separation is attributed to India where by the 9th century AD practical calculations were carried out using zero, which was treated like any other number, even in case of division. The Indian scholar [|Pingala] (circa 5th-2nd century BC) used [|binary numbers] in the form of short and long syllables (the latter equal in length to two short syllables), making it similar to [|Morse code]. He and his contemporary Indian scholars used the [|Sanskrit] word [|śūnya] to refer to zero or void.

As a number

0 is the [|integer] immediately preceding [|1]. In most [|cultures], 0 was identified before the idea of negative things (quantities) that go lower than zero was accepted. [|Zero is an even number], [|[22]] because it is divisible by [|2]. 0 is neither positive nor negative. By most definitions [|[23]] 0 is a [|natural number], and then the only natural number not to be positive. Zero is a number which quantifies a count or an amount of [|null] size.

The value, or number, zero is not the same as the digit zero, used in [|numeral systems] using [|positional notation]. Successive positions of digits have higher weights, so inside a numeral the digit zero is used to skip a position and give appropriate weights to the preceding and following digits. A zero digit is not always necessary in a positional number system, for example, in the number 02. In some instances, a [|leading zero] may be used to distinguish a number.

Bibliography www.gap-system.org/~**history**/HistTopics/**Zero**.html[|Cached]

www.mediatinker.com/blog/archives/008821.html[|Cached] - [|Similar]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_(**number**)

Tests

My tests went great it was manly to my specification but it had the right ideals with the light gray I could have chosen a better color but still it has the way that people won’t be distracted by. I think the lay out worked really well and it would be really organized and look really good with some tweaks to it like the back ground color and the text color. I think I could add something to the historical facts to make it less boring. I think the page links are a good idea to do because if you don’t want to go through the whole presentation just to get to the page you want. So I think it worked and even though it needed some tweaks.

DESIGN: **__ Diesing spesification __**
 * **My power point must have the font the same size for the titels and the writing must be the same font and size:** because then it won't look atractive and your eyes will hert.
 * **my power point must have the same back round:** because it needs to be a back round that won't mack people get distracted on the back round and not focast on the writeing.
 * **my power point must have a back round colour other than white and black:** because it will mack people whant to see it and not tack a glance at it and say a it dosn't enterst me.
 * **my power point must have at most 5 pictures:** because if there are to many pictures it will fill up the page and there won't be enough space for the information and if we have less than 5 pictures people might get board when watching.

PLAN:

CREATE: I got my information and my pictures from these websites //__www-**history**.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/**Zero**__.__html__//__, connectedprincipals.com__, // [|www.gapsystem.org/~] ** [|history] ** [|/HistTopics/] ** [|Zero] ** [|.html] //__ [|Cached] __, //__en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_(**number**)__//__, mrjamesclass__.__wordpress.com, enchantedlearning.com__, __nationsonline.org, freeclipartnow.com__

Things I had to change to my plan

Due to going on holiday I had to speed up the proses of the plan that I had made. I had four days till I went on holiday so I had to do two days work in one day so I had four busy days ahead of me so I worked on it every day and I got the job done. I had a backup plan just in case the internet wasn’t working. My back up plan was to tack my mum’s laptop to South Africa and use my brothers internet at the university that he has played for but I didn’t need it after all.

EVALUATE: Evaluation

The power point was not exactly what my specifications were but it got the just of it. There were some slight changes made to it like the writing on the power point is white not black because the black was camouflaged in the gray. Another change I have made is that I didn’t have the amount of information I wanted because it would be quite boring to only reading a lot of information and you said it yourself power points aren’t for lodes of information and most of the information wasn’t that important. For my design specifications it reached all of them I had five pictures exactly because I planed my power point to have 5 pictures exactly all spread out except for the comparing of roman numerals to Arabic numerals. Another example was that all my slides have the same back ground and the titles. The power point was a success and it worked well I made a few changes to my specifications. I tested my power point with five people and four of them think it works well and the one other person wanted me to change my arrows around and that’s it.