[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:06.34,0:00:08.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Mysteries of vernacular:
Dialogue: 0,0:00:08.69,0:00:10.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Zero,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:10.04,0:00:13.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a number that indicates an absence of units.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.68,0:00:17.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In order to understand the genesis of the word zero,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:17.08,0:00:20.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we must begin with the very origins of counting.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:20.91,0:00:24.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The earliest known archaeological evidence of counting
Dialogue: 0,0:00:24.31,0:00:28.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,dates back approximately 37,000 years
Dialogue: 0,0:00:28.12,0:00:31.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and is merely a series of notches in bone.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:31.65,0:00:35.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It wasn't until around 2500 B.C.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:35.39,0:00:37.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that the first written number system
Dialogue: 0,0:00:37.24,0:00:40.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,began to take form in Mesopotamia,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:40.76,0:00:45.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,using the units one, ten, and sixty.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:45.45,0:00:47.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Fast forward another three millennia
Dialogue: 0,0:00:47.18,0:00:49.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to seventh century India
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.28,0:00:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where mathematicians used a single dot
Dialogue: 0,0:00:52.00,0:00:53.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to distinguish between numbers
Dialogue: 0,0:00:53.70,0:00:59.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,like 25, 205, and 250.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:59.62,0:01:02.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Employed as both a placeholder and a number,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:02.75,0:01:05.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,this all-powerful dot eventually morphed
Dialogue: 0,0:01:05.13,0:01:07.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,into the symbol we know today.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:07.67,0:01:11.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The word zero comes from the Arabic safira,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:11.50,0:01:15.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,whose literal translation is empty.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:15.14,0:01:17.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Passing through Italian as zefiro,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:17.73,0:01:22.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,zero came into English in the seventeenth century.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.26,0:01:24.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A second descendant of the Arabic root
Dialogue: 0,0:01:24.78,0:01:27.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was adopted into English through old French
Dialogue: 0,0:01:27.62,0:01:30.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as the word cipher.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:30.10,0:01:33.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Originally sharing the meaning empty with zero,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:33.51,0:01:36.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,cipher later came to describe a code,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:36.72,0:01:39.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as early codes often used complicated substitutions
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.98,0:01:42.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,between letters and numbers.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:42.72,0:01:44.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,From this shared empty origin,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:44.88,0:01:48.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,zero continues to represent the number
Dialogue: 0,0:01:48.09,0:01:50.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that represents nothing.