Bibliography:Zero (mathematics)

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]