♫ Yous Enjoin Zero, 1 Enjoin Nought ♫

mistakes. One comment that I constitute especially interesting was close the role of wrong vocabulary to limited the release 0. This made me wonder what's acceptable in addition to what isn't.

First, I retrieve nosotros should endeavor to avoid proverb 'oh', because that's a letter, non a number. However, nosotros should comport inwards heed that 'oh' is unremarkably used as a number. I retrieve many of us likely get-go 'oh vii ...' when nosotros laissez passer our στοιχείο number. 'Oh' is used inwards telling the fourth dimension amongst the 24 clock likewise eg 16:05 is said as 'sixteen oh five'. 'James Bond double oh seven' is around other example. But although it's acceptable inwards conversation, 'oh' shouldn't live on used for the release 0 inwards a maths classroom.

I role the discussion null quite often, for illustration I tell my students to brand a quadratic equation 'equal to zero'. I'd tell 5⁰ as 'five to the ability of zero', in addition to and thus on. I wouldn't tell nought inwards these cases, though there's zilch wrong amongst proverb nought.

I practice sometimes role the discussion nought instead of zero. For illustration I would tell the release 0.64 as 'nought betoken half dozen four'.

Although at that topographic point is a perception that null is the 'best' agency to tell the release 0, I'm convinced that the discussion nought is even in addition to thus widely used inwards the UK, especially inwards numbers amongst decimals. I did a Twitter poll to banking concern fit what maths teachers say. Twitter polls are of limited role because they render no data close who has responded (ie what continent they are from), but the results are even in addition to thus of interest:

'Something else' included a) people who but tell 'point five' in addition to (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 own got used a dissimilar decimal inwards my query to avoid this response).

The large release of responses for 'nought betoken five' confirmed that the discussion 'nought' is even in addition to thus widely used, at to the lowest degree inwards 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 release 0 inwards English' might live on of interest:

The words "nought" in addition to "naught" are spelling variants... There is a distinction inwards British English linguistic communication betwixt the two, but it is non 1 that is universally recognized. This distinction is that "nought" is primarily used inwards a literal arithmetics sense, where the release 0 is straightforwardly meant, whereas "naught" is used inwards poetical in addition to rhetorical senses, where "nothing" could as good live on substituted... Whilst British English linguistic communication makes this distinction, inwards States English, the spelling "naught" is preferred for both the literal in addition to rhetorical/poetic senses. 

In summary, I retrieve it's fine to role the words null in addition to nought interchangeably inwards the maths classroom, as long as your students know what you're referring to. Do you lot agree?

♫ You tell zero, I tell nought

Let's telephone phone the whole affair off ♫

Further reading: BBC 4 In Our Time Debate: Zero