When I was in Kindergarten (grade 0 in American school) I asked my teacher why we skip 0 when we count, and if there was anything less than 0. She looked me right in the eyes and said, "There's nothing less than 0 and 0 isn't anything, so we count from 1." Later on I found out that she had lied about numbers less than 0. It sort of got me thinking...
Everyone believes that 2 + 2 = 4 right? But what if I told you that's only because it's how we were taught? What if your teachers told you to count from 0 (like how computers count) instead of counting from 1, then would 2 + 2 still equal 4? Nope. Let's do the math, I'll count a check-mark for each number below to show it:
0 & 1 & 2 + 0 & 1 & 2 = ?
✔ & ✔ & ✔ + ✔ & ✔ & ✔= 6 checks
You can even count it on your fingers, 2 + 2 results in 6 when you start counting from 0. But wait, there's more!
We're counting from 0 here, so technically the 6th digit is the number 5. So let me count that again with check-marks to make it obvious:
0 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5
is the same as:
✔ & ✔ & ✔ & ✔ & ✔ & ✔
So there you have it, simple math which you could count on your hands proves that 2 + 2 = 5 but why is that important? Well, it's not just 2+2 it's actually all the math work that humans have ever done. If we've been doing it wrong all this time then don't you think we should start doing it right someday? Eventually we'll have to start counting from 0 out of necessity, like converting to the metric system. The simple math we use today might be okay if it's wrong by a little bit, but in the future we'll need to start doing it right.
All computers (including calculators) count from 0 instead of 1, but when they do math for humans those computer apps and calculators all had to be programmed to adjust their results to give the numbers that humans expect. I know this sounds a little corny, but it's possibly the biggest conspiracy theory of all time.
But you might be saying, "Take it to it's logical conclusion, 0 plus 0 shouldn't equal 1." And you're right, if you put 0 dollars on a table and then add 0 more dollars you wont get 1 magic dollar out of it. But don't forget that we're not done yet, we still need to 'translate' that result of 1 into it's Nth digit. In this case the 1st digit is 0. So 0 + 0 = 0 still, even when you start counting from 0. And 1 + 1 = 3 because 0 & 1 + 0 & 1 = the 4th digit which is 3. I hope that makes sense.
Or maybe you still think 0 isn't even a real number at all? But if we don't count 0 because it represents nothing, then why shouldn't we count 2 twice according to the same logic? Do you think we should start counting from 0? I think we should, and I dare anybody to try and prove me wrong. Let's get a debate started in the comments. Thank you for reading this.