Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India c5.s7.5

c5.s7.5

In certain Greek astronomical Papyri Mss. ( 100 B.C. ) as well as Ptolemy's table of chords ( 150 A.D. ), symbols resembling that of modern zero were used to indicate the ending of a sentence or a marginal gap.¹ According to some scholars, this served as the origin of the introduction of the symbol for zero in mathematical notation. There is no justification of such a view as their application in mathematical calculation could not be traced in any of the ancient contemporary Greek mathematical works or thereafter.