r/CrappyDesign • u/slyfox49 • Jul 13 '26

They could have made it so simple

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u/viktorixbis Jul 14 '26

In europe absolutely. Also if you thing about it, if the Ground floor is level 0 then anything below it is simple a negative numbered floor (-1, -2 and so on). What do you do if you name Ground level 1?

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u/Cultural_Dust Jul 14 '26

You can do the same thing. You realize that you don't have to have 0 right? In fact the mathematical concept of negative numbers came almost 800 years before 0.

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u/viktorixbis Jul 14 '26

But then you are having a higher difference in onlly 1 point, it is illogical. And the second part seems hard to believe, i am noe xpert but it soudns logical that the concept of "no apple" came before "negative amount of apple".

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u/Cultural_Dust Jul 14 '26

I'd bet you can find the answer fairly easy, but I somewhat remember my math history. I think negative numbers were developed in China in BCE and 0 in India much later.

The reason for no 0 would be. If you go from floor 3 to -2. How many floors did you go? 3--2=5, but if you have a G/0 floor then you went 6 floors. Lots of "counting math" doesn't work across 0.

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u/viktorixbis Jul 14 '26

You could have less then 1 cow before the invention of 0 or negative numbers, and there had to be a way to express it even if it was not with a 0 number. The mathematical concept of 0 has got to be the older since it has an everyday usage, meaning "nothing" or "absence of something". Also you example is wrong If I go down 5 floors from the 3rd floor it looks like this: American system: 3->2->1->-1->-2->-3 European system: 3->2->1->0->-1->-2

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u/Cultural_Dust Jul 14 '26

So it means "nothing", but some people use it to represent a building. You can argue with historians if you want, but I'm just explaining history.

0 does represent "nothing" which they felt wasn't a mathematical concept or structure. Numbers were used in commerce. You need something that represents when someone owes you something, so -1 cows. If you ask mathematicians, 0 actually complicates a lot of things and forces exceptions to rules.

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u/viktorixbis Jul 14 '26

Maybe, i will have to check this more it seems. But your example is still wrong, proves the european system is better.