The Number Zero Trivia

1. Oh, look at that... turns out someone did indeed invent the number zero. Who defined this operation of zero and invented its symbol, this cornerstone of modern mathematics that was first understood as a value and a symbol?

From Quiz Whoever Made the Number Zero...Thanks For Nothing!

Answer: Brahmagupta

Brahmagupta (598 AD-668 AD) was a Hindu mathematician and astronomer who in the 7th century, developed the concept of the number 0 and how it operates in mathematical computations. Before then, even though people of course understood the concept of having nothing, of having a "zero" amount, a formal mathematical attribution of it wasn't around. In 628 AD Brahmagupta developed how to use the number mathematically and also invented the symbol for it.

From Quiz Here Goes Nothing!

Answer: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

In a book that Pirsig describes has little or no factual information about Zen Buddhism or motorcycles he uses a seventeen day journey from Minnesota to California as a method of expanding on his thoughts and theories on the "Metaphysics of Quality". As an example of his views on the meaning of "mu" he offers us the binary number system of a computer circuit. He advises us that it is silly to consider that this system only exhibits two states - a voltage for "one" and a voltage for "zero". "What happens when the power is turned off?" he asks, "the circuits will revert to a "mu" state". Pirsig's book sold in excess of five million copies worldwide. "The Tao of Pooh" was written by Benjamin Hoff, "The Alchemist" by Paolo Coelho and "City of Thieves" is a novel by David Benioff.

From Quiz Nothing but Zero

Answer: Coca-Cola

Coke Zero came out in 2005. It was an effort by the company to get men to drink diet sodas, which had heretofore been consumed mostly by women. In the United Kingdom, the product has been nicknamed "Bloke Coke".

From Quiz Nothing but Zero

Answer: white

The Zero Bar was introduced by the Hershey Company way back in 1920. It is filled with peanuts, nougat, caramel, and covered in white fudge. Yummy.

From Quiz Whoever Made the Number Zero...Thanks For Nothing!

Answer: Beetle Bailey

Beetle Bailey was a comic strip created by Mort Walker in 1950. Beetle was the main character, a lazy private always trying to get out of working. Zero was a slow-witted fellow private with big buck teeth. He was a farm boy and the humor involving his character revolved around him taking orders literally, not getting the nuance of language, and thus messing up the orders.

From Quiz Nothing but Zero

Answer: Agatha Christie

"Towards Zero" is a Superintendent Battle mystery--a police superintendent who is a recurring protagonist in a number of Christie tales. It was first published in the UK and the US in 1944.

From Quiz Whoever Made the Number Zero...Thanks For Nothing!

Answer: Marvel Universe

Agent Zero was one of the mutant characters of the X-Men in the Marvel Universe. His powers included superior reflexes and agility, and he could also somehow absorb kinetic energy making him stronger the more he would take beatings. He was portrayed by actor Daniel Henney in the film "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".

From Quiz Nothing but Zero

Answer: The mission to kill Osama Bin Laden

"Zero Dark Thirty" came out in 2012. It told the story of the culmination of the decade-long effort to locate and kill Osama Bin Laden after the attacks on the US in September 2001.

From Quiz Whoever Made the Number Zero...Thanks For Nothing!

Answer: Kelvin

Absolute zero is the temperature reached when the molecules and atoms of matter have become at their lowest energy points. Absolute zero is really more of a theoretical concept because the Third Law of Thermodynamics states that nothing can actually have a temperature of absolute zero. That is because quantum physics states that zero point energy means that even if all the energy was removed from the particles, the particles still have some energy due to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. To begin with, absolute zero doesn't really assume that the particles have completely stopped moving, but rather that they have simply reached their lowest energy. Absolute zero is known as 0 Kelvin, equal to -273.15 Celsius or Centigrade, or -459.67 Fahrenheit.

From Quiz Nothing but Zero

Answer: Annie Rooney's dog

"Little Annie Rooney" was the title of a comic strip in King Features publications. She was an orphan, but she had a dog, Zero, and a favorite exclamation: "Gloriosky!" The strip debuted in 1927, shortly after "Little Orphan Annie" appeared in the "Chicago Tribune" papers and became wildly popular. Orphan Annie had a dog, Sandy, and a favorite exclamation, "Leapin' Lizards". So, we have two orphaned girls whose given names are the same and who both have dogs and habitual epithets, but surely there could have been no attempt by King Features to imitate the "Chicago Tribune".

From Quiz Whoever Made the Number Zero...Thanks For Nothing!

Answer: Stephen Wright

Let me first say that you might come across sources attributing this quote to Albert Einstein, but those are erroneous because the term "black hole" didn't come about until 1964, and Einstein died in 1955. Why is dividing by zero such an impossibility in conventional arithmetic? One way to illustrate the contradictory nature of the task is to imagine a pie that has been sliced into twelve wedges. To figure out how many slices would be given in an equal amount to four people we divide 12 by 4 and we have determined that they would each get three slices of pie. But if the question instead was, how many slices of pie would be given to zero people to make it equal, the question sort of doesn't make sense. Or perhaps a more mathematical approach is to realize that after we divide two numbers we can reverse the process to get back to the beginning, i.e. 12 divided by 4 = 3, and then 4 x 3 = 12. But to try and do the same with a zero involved doesn't compute: 12 divided by 0 = (n), so theoretically (n) x 0 should equal 12, but we know that when we multiply any number (n) by 0 the answer is 0. No number (n) would yield 12 when multiplied by 0.

From Quiz Here Goes Nothing!

Answer: Cypher

Played by Joe Pantoliano, the character is known as Mr. Reagan, but is generally referred to as Cypher through the movie. Cypher has had enough of living on the hovercraft (the Nebuchadnezzer) and he's lost faith in Morpheus' prophecy about "the One". He also wishes that he never knew the truth about the Matrix. He makes a deal with Agent Smith that nearly sees Trinity killed at the start of the film and then activates a cell phone (which he throws into a trash can) that betrays the team's position to the agents when they take Neo to visit the Oracle. Cypher then makes his way back to the hovercraft where he shoots Tank and proceeds to kill Dozer, Apoc and Switch. He's at the point of terminating Neo and Trinity when Tank recovers from his wound and kills him. There is some irony in the choice of names for Cypher, though whether this is deliberate ploy by the writers is not clear. -Cypher means zero and, in his deal with Agent Smith, the character says he wants to "remember nothin'". -Mr. Reagan may well be a reference to President Ronald Reagan who claimed memory loss (remember nothin') when he was questioned over the Iran-Contra affair. In his later years the President suffered from Alzheimer's disease which could also allude to the statement of "remember nothin'". -Finally, Cypher's plans would have amounted to "nothin'" as it is revealed that Agent Smith had no intention of honouring the deal.

From Quiz Nothing but Zero

Answer: One where income plus outgo totals zero

Zero-sum, or zero-based budgets, which became popular in the latter half of the twentieth century, begin with a projection of the cost that must be incurred for the individual or business to accomplish whatever goals have been identified for the budget period. Once the cost of achieving each goal is identified, funds are then allocated to each one. The process is complete when all funds have been allocated, resulting in a difference of zero between income and expenditures.

From Quiz Nothing but Zero

Answer: Billy Preston

Billy Preston started his music career early--he was in his mid-teens when he played with Little Richard professionally. He played on some of the tracks of The Beatles' "Abbey Road", played in their final live performance, and portrayed Sergeant Pepper in the film of the same name. "Nothing from Nothing" was arguably Preston's biggest hit.

From Quiz Here Goes Nothing!

Answer: Billy Preston

Billy Preston was considered to be one of the top session musicians of the 1960s and a keyboard virtuoso. Apart from the Beatles he also collaborated on works for artists as diverse as Little Richard, Ray Charles and the Rolling Stones. He would go on to achieve solo success with songs such as "Will It Go Round in Circles", "That's the Way God Planned It" and the above-named "Nothing From Nothing". The latter, released in 1974, would reach number one on Billboard's Hot 100, spend nearly five months in the charts and be used in an advertisement by Chevrolet. Written by the combination of Lennon and McCartney the song "Get Back" was released in April of 1969. The release was credited to The Beatles with Billy Preston.

From Quiz Nothing but Zero

Answer: Dave Barry

Dave Barry is the son of a minister, born in New York State in 1947. He started writing humor columns in a small Pennsylvania newspaper in the early 1970s, and eventually joined the staff of "The Miami Herald", where he wrote a nationally syndicated humor column until 2005. In 1988 he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He has authored a number of books, and has had his works used in television and movies. Barry also plays in a unique band-infrequently--called The Rock Bottom Remainders, comprised of writers and such, which has featured Matt Groening, Roy Blunt, Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Stephen King, and Amy Tan--among many others.

From Quiz Nothing but Zero

Answer: Albert Einstein

Einstein's 1916 Theory of Relativity predicted the existence of black holes (although it was not the first time the phenomenon was postulated). Einstein himself reportedly did not believe in them despite his own work's pointing to their existence. Although the "dividing by zero" remark is often attributed to Einstein, the comedian Stephen Wright is also sometimes given credit for it.

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