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:::: In fact, the zero can be used in two different ways: as a symbol indicating the lack of a positional value in positional numerical systems, or as a number properly speaking. An example of the first use is the number 101: The zero is there to express that there are no tenths in the number “one hundred and one”. The second use involves performing arithmetic with the zero as if it were any old number. Mayans, and Babylonians even before them, had a positional numerical system, so they needed a symbol to express that a certain positional value was void, centuries before the Indian mathematicians. This symbol is known as the “zero” of these cultures. However, they did not use zero as a number, since they did not perform arithmetic operations with it. The Indian mathematicians were the first to develop the now familiar rules of arithmetic with zero, and hence the first to use zero as a number.--[[User:Quetzalcoatl|Quetzalcoatl]] 16:52, 9 August 2009 (EDT)