Arabic numerals are simply the digits 0 through 9—the standard number symbols used in every classroom in the United States.

Another post from betting market company Polymarket read: “BREAKING: Zohran Mamdani to require all New York elementary school students to learn Arabic numerals.” The post has almost 14 million views.

  • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
    5·
    14 hours ago

    I want to correct something. They knew what nothing meant. They just didn’t conceptualize the absence of things as a number. And honestly, it’s a bit weird, but it is useful. You can’t have 0 apples, but the concept is useful for math.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        4 hours ago

        Arguably, sure. The way they’d understand it is you don’t have apples though, not that you have zero. With our understanding, it makes some sense, but I’d say even today that’s odd to say. It isn’t wrong, but it is strange to say you posses everything in the universe (and anything else too), just in quantities of zero. It makes more sense to say you don’t possess them.