Zero and positional notation in Europe (Fibonacci)
Cero y sistema posicional en Europa (Liber Abaci)
- Date
- 1202 · confidence high
- Place
- Pisa, Italy
- Credited to
- Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci), trained in Bugia (Algeria)
- People
- 👤 Leonardo de Pisa1170–1240
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
The Liber Abaci explained zero (zephirum) and positional calculation with mercantile applications: currency exchange, interest, profit-sharing. It turned Indian arithmetic into a European commercial tool.
What it led to
- abacus schools (botteghe d'abaco) for the sons of Tuscan merchants
- financial mathematics and the calculation of compound interest
- the Fibonacci sequence and Renaissance mathematics (Pacioli, Cardano)
Built on
- Positional number notationc. 2000 BCE
- Zero as a number (India)628
- Algebra and algorithm (al-Khwarizmi)c. 820
- Abu Kamil's algebra with irrational coefficientsc. 900
- Hindu-Arabic numerals in Europe976
- Hindu-Arabic numerals in Europe
- Algebra and algorithm (al-Khwarizmi)
- Brahmagupta (zero, 628)
Made possible
- Double-entry bookkeeping1340
- Algebraic solution of cubic and quartic equations1545
- Double-entry bookkeeping
- financial mathematics