this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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Fun fact, for a long time in history minus (-1) did not exist
Mathematics for much of human history was discrete - it had to be connected to something tangible which you can see, touch or feel. Negative numbers first arose in China, subsequently the use numerical operations on negative numbers and the conceptualization and use of zero arose in India. Spiritual concepts within dharmic philosophies such as Buddhism helped lead to these ideas.
Zero is also a relatively new invention
In the history of mathematics, -1 was understood waaaay before 0.
For the Greeks, doing 1-1 would be invalid, something close to dividing by zero for us.
Fun fact, for the greeks, 1 is not a number either - they said the natural numbers started at 2 and unity is something else. This is because, they said, all numbers represent pluralities.
Dividing by zero is well understood and sometimes even well defined.
That's a stretch.
I saw a video years ago where somebody was talking (with a translator) to a tribe, I forget where. He asked how do they count. They would point with one hand to the other hand. Once they've got to five they start pointing to other parts of the arm moving upwards. He then asked what if you need to count higher. They looked confused, why would they need to count higher.
For them they could exist without needing to count beyond teens.
How about -2?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAwJlD-m_hE
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