There are features about zero that need some notes. There is often confusion in young minds about the oddities.
I once saw statements to the effect that
Zero is nothing.I am not following that logic ~ as you will see by looking down the page ~
Nothing does not exist.
We cannot write about nothing.
The human hands have ten digits. Some people say 'That is why we count in tens.' Both statements are true ~ but not quite. If you check-out your fingers you will reach the number ten. Ten is a counting number. It is not a mathematical digit. There are ten finger-digits. There are ten mathematical-digits. But 10 is not a mathematical digit ~ the largest such is nine. The smallest mathematical digit is zero. Zero is not a counting number ~ but it is a digit. You do not have a 'zero' finger-digit. As a mathemtician you do have a 'zero' math-digit.
Most children will be brought up to recognize the slightly squashed circle. Some books are not helpful over this and there is occasional confusion over capital O and 0. I have no idea how the last bit of that sentence will look on your computer screen or print-out. If the surrounding matter concerns maths ~ numbers ~ sums ~ then confusion is unlikely.
I am compiling some handwritten possibilities: ~
In print: zero is written is different ways, in order to avoid ~ or cause ~ confusion.
