Don't Panic

Is 0 a number?

I've seen this debated around the interwebs lately and, since this is my blog, I'm gonna weigh-in.

A number is meant to measure the amount of something. The amount of distance long something is, the amount of items in a container, the amount of weight increments something is, etc.

0 serves to indicate that there is none of something, which is still a measurement. It indicates the absence of an amount of something. This is different than null, which is the absence of a measurement of something.

So 0 is a number because it indicates how much of something there is, in this case “none.”