♫ Y'all Enjoin Zero, Ane Enjoin Nought ♫

mistakes. One comment that I establish especially interesting was close the purpose of wrong vocabulary to limited the publish 0. This made me wonder what's acceptable as well as what isn't.

First, I holler upward nosotros should endeavour to avoid maxim 'oh', because that's a letter, non a number. However, nosotros should acquit inward hear that 'oh' is usually used as a number. I holler upward many of us likely outset 'oh 7 ...' when nosotros hand our cellular telephone number. 'Oh' is used inward telling the fourth dimension alongside the 24 clock as good eg 16:05 is said as 'sixteen oh five'. 'James Bond double oh seven' is closed to other example. But although it's acceptable inward conversation, 'oh' shouldn't hold upward used for the publish 0 inward a maths classroom.

I purpose the discussion null quite often, for instance I tell my students to brand a quadratic equation 'equal to zero'. I'd tell 5⁰ as 'five to the ability of zero', as well as and then on. I wouldn't tell nought inward these cases, though there's zilch wrong alongside maxim nought.

I exercise sometimes purpose the discussion nought instead of zero. For instance I would tell the publish 0.64 as 'nought indicate vi four'.

Although at that topographic point is a perception that null is the 'best' agency to tell the publish 0, I'm convinced that the discussion nought is all the same widely used inward the UK, especially inward numbers alongside decimals. I did a Twitter poll to banking company gibe what maths teachers say. Twitter polls are of limited purpose because they render no data close who has responded (ie what continent they are from), but the results are all the same of interest:

'Something else' included a) people who but tell 'point five' as well as (b) people who tell 'half' (yes yes, nosotros all know it's a half! I wasn't bespeak close the maths! In hindsight, I should guide maintain used a dissimilar decimal inward my enquiry to avoid this response).

The large publish of responses for 'nought indicate five' confirmed that the discussion 'nought' is all the same widely used, at to the lowest degree inward the UK.  A few tweets from North America suggested that it's rarely used there.

If you're wondering close the spelling of the discussion nought, this extract from Wikipedia 'Names for the publish 0 inward English' might hold upward of interest:

The words "nought" as well as "naught" are spelling variants... There is a distinction inward British English linguistic communication betwixt the two, but it is non 1 that is universally recognized. This distinction is that "nought" is primarily used inward a literal arithmetics sense, where the publish 0 is straightforwardly meant, whereas "naught" is used inward poetical as well as rhetorical senses, where "nothing" could as good hold upward substituted... Whilst British English linguistic communication makes this distinction, inward USA English, the spelling "naught" is preferred for both the literal as well as rhetorical/poetic senses. 

In summary, I holler upward it's fine to purpose the words null as well as nought interchangeably inward the maths classroom, as long as your students know what you're referring to. Do y'all agree?

♫ You tell zero, I tell nought

Let's telephone phone the whole matter off ♫

Further reading: BBC 4 In Our Time Debate: Zero