Zero (mathematics)/Bibliography

Martin Gardner, The Significance of ‘Nothing’, in: The Night is Large. (1996).

''What is the origin of zero? How did we indicate nothingness before zero?'' Scientific American (January 16, 2007), answer based on Kaplan's book (see below). [Scientific American]

Bill Casselman, All for Nought. Feature column at [ams.org] (About the oldest known record of "0" in India.)

Read with care
 * There are several popular books on (the history of) "zero" which make interesting reading but have to be taken with care as can be seen from the reviews.


 * Robert Kaplan, The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero.  Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.
 * Critically reviewed by:
 * Ivor Grattan-Guinness, Much ado about some thing, Book Review. Nature 401, 645-646 (14 October 1999) (doi:10.1038/44273) [nature.com]
 * Philip J. Davis, Embedding Zero in Exposition, Book Review. SIAM News (September 17, 2000) [siam.org]
 * Andrew Leahy, The Mathematical Association of America. [maa.org]
 * Brian Blank, Book review. The College Mathematics Journal, Vol.32 No.2, March 2001, 155-160. See pp. 158-160 [pdf]
 * Keith Devlin, Natural History, Dec, 1999. [bnet]


 * Charles Seife, Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. Viking Penguin, New York, 2000.
 * Critically reviewed by:
 * Steven G. Krantz, What's So Special About Zero? Book Review, SIAM News (September 17, 2000). [siam.org (pdf)]
 * Brian Blank, Book review. The College Mathematics Journal, Vol.32 No.2, March 2001, 155-160. See pp. 157-158 [pdf]
 * Keith Devlin, Natural History, Dec, 1999. [bnet]


 * John D. Barrow, The Book of Nothing. Pantheon: 2001.
 * Critically reviewed by:
 * John O'Connor, Nothing to it! Book review. Nature 410, 748-749 (12 April 2001) (doi:10.1038/35071152) [nature.com]