Zeros
Bookworm at Bookworm Room on Jun 01 2007 at 10:11 am | Filed under: Feature Article
Zero is an interesting number. It can bring with it very negative connotations: “You scored zero on your test.” “You’re nothing but a big fat zero.” “What did she leave me in her will? I’ll tell you: zero, nada, nothing!”
On the other hand, it’s a pretty cool number. It wasn’t until fairly late in human development that mathematicians figured out that zero is actually a workable — highly workable — concept and not just an absence. For this of us who are not gifted at higher mathematics, zero is also lovely because it’s one of the first multiplication rules you can easily teach your child: a number multiplied by ten has a zero tacked on; a number multiplied by one hundred, has two zeros tacked on;and so forth.
Zero can also be nice when it’s added to the digits on a check. A $1.00 check is a little demoralizing; a $10,000 check is a delight; and a $1,000,000 check is something I’d like to see in my lifetime.
Finally, zero is very nice when you’re counting the number of visitors to your blog. As of this moment, my counter shows 399,137 blog hits, which is a completely zero free number. If things go according to their usual pattern, however, sometime today, or perhaps in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, my website will suddenly boast five zeros in that number. Yup, I’m heading up for 400,000 visitors to my blog — many of them frequent fliers whose visits gratify me tremendously. I mean, it’s nice when someone new toddles over to check things out, but it’s really flattering when people find things so congenial here that they keep coming back.
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