The Paradox of Zero | Teen Ink

The Paradox of Zero

June 5, 2024
By prishaashrimali GOLD, Edgewater, New Jersey
prishaashrimali GOLD, Edgewater, New Jersey
14 articles 0 photos 0 comments

I wonder, how can you discover something that does not exist?
Yet I’m here, my presence a reminder of what is not present.
I am zero the hero — and I have developed over time.
Alas, nothing could ever exist without a symbol of nothing.
Aryabata was onto something, and Brahmagupta was too.
Now I rest on your paper, shrinking numbers to nothing for you.


The author's comments:

This poem was written in the format of a sloka, a type of Ancient Indian poetry. A sloka has a "fluid meter" and is the "chief verse form of the Sanskrit epics" (.com/art/sloka">Britannica). It is a precise, mathematical poetry form, which explains why I reference mathematical concepts and mathematicians in the poem.


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