"When zero is added to a number or subtracted from a number, the number remains unchanged; and a number multiplied by zero becomes zero. Today a child is taught this at school at an early age, but in 628 A.D it took the genius of a mathematician to think in this unique way."
You never really realize how something we see as being so simple and obvious was such a huge deal way back when. I have never really taken the time to sit and think about how numbers and the idea of counting came to be even though it is such a big part of our lives today. I can't imagine trying to live in the world we have today without having a way of counting something or even having a set word for each number. It also amazes me how everything kind of evolved into what we have today. Counting started with sticks and stones, to tally marks, to sounds and so on.
Question: How do we know when to stop "improving" something? Or should there always be a way to make something better than it was before?
