Nothing facts for kids
Nothing, no-thing, or no thing, is the complete absence of anything.
The concept of nothing has been a matter of philosophical debate since at least the 5th century BC. Early Greek philosophers argued that it was impossible for nothing to exist. The atomists allowed nothing but only in the spaces between the invisibly small atoms. For them, all space was filled with atoms. Aristotle took the view that there exists matter and there exists space, a receptacle into which matter objects can be placed. This became the paradigm for classical scientists of the modern age like Newton. Nevertheless, some philosophers, like Descartes, continued to argue against the existence of empty space until the scientific discovery of a physical vacuum.
Mathematics
Perhaps the best-known usage of the term "nothing" in mathematics is the number 0, which is neither a positive nor negative number. It's sometimes included in the set of natural numbers, denoted by 
, but it's always included in the set of real numbers, denoted by 
. "Nothing" can also apply to empty sets, indicated by the symbol 
, whose size or cardinality is 0.
Related pages
See also
In Spanish: Nada para niños
