17-5日本語訳
お願いします。
The people of ancient India,like those of ancient Rome,used a counting board to keep track of sums.A counting board had columns marked off,each standing for units of 1,10,100,and so on.You put pebbles or other counters in each column to stand for your number.So far,so good,you could easily record how many pebbles were in each column.But if one of the columns was empty,things got sticky.Without zero,two ones could stand for one 100 and one 1,or one 10 and one 1,or－you get the idea.Finally,someone had the bright idea of putting a small dot(which later became a circle)wherever there was an empty column.In fact,the Sanskrit word for zero is shunya,which means“empty.”
By making arithmetic easier,the invention of zero has probably had more impact on the daily lives of people than any other scientific or technological discovery from ancient India.But if you'd asked a Mauryan emperor like Chandragupta what invention was most important to the strength of his kingdom,he probably would have told you the process of smelting iron.
お礼
なるほど！（ポムっ） ありがとうござぃました。