时差N小时 数字零的由来(上)

Did you know that the number zero was discovered by Hindu mathematicians¹ around the sixth century? What? That's crazy! Zero is just a number. It's not something that you have to discover, just there. Well, actually what I mean is … isn't it there？ That's… You know what I mean. That was exactly the problem. Sure, people had the idea of a number that stands for nothing, but they were confused by it. For many centuries the notion of number “zero” was disregarded as nonsense. The whole thing actually frighten people. No,kid? No.Why Aristotle himself argued that the idea of zero should be outlawed²？ because when you try to divide other numbers by zero you don’t get anywhere. Zero times infinity³ is still zero!

【参考译文】

你知道“0”这个数字是由印度数学家在6世纪左右发明的吗？什么？那太疯狂了。“0”只是一个数字，那并不是你必须发明的，它就在那儿。是的，事实上我的意思是……它不在那儿吗？那是……我要说的。那正是问题所在，当然，人们脑中有这样一个什么都不表示的数字概念，但是他们被这个概念搞糊涂了。许多世纪以来，零的概念被当作胡闹而没人理会。零的事让人们感到恐惧。不会吧？你在开玩笑？我不是开玩笑。为什么亚里士多德争论零的概念是不受法律的？因为当你用0除以任何数字时，得到的仍然是0。0乘以无限大的数字仍然是0。

1 mathematicians   

数学家( mathematician的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that? 你以为我们的数学家做不到这一点吗？ 来自英汉文学
• Mathematicians can solve problems with two variables. 数学家们可以用两个变数来解决问题。 来自哲学部分

2 outlawed   

宣布…为不合法（outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Most states have outlawed the use of marijuana. 大多数州都宣布使用大麻为非法行为。
• I hope the sale of tobacco will be outlawed someday. 我希望有朝一日烟草制品会禁止销售。

3 infinity   

n.无限，无穷，大量

参考例句：

• It is impossible to count up to infinity.不可能数到无穷大。
• Theoretically,a line can extend into infinity.从理论上来说直线可以无限地延伸。