# Why do some people state that 'Zero is not a number'?

Every now and then I read about people who wonder whether zero is a number. It never occurred to me to question this, so I checked the Wikipedia page which, when talking about the Rules of Brahmagupta explains

In saying zero divided by zero is zero, Brahmagupta differs from the modern position. Mathematicians normally do not assign a value to this, whereas computers and calculators sometimes assign NaN, which means "not a number."

I did consider whether this difference in position may be the reason why some people state that "Zero is not a number".

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 The question in the title differs from the question in the final paragraph. Which question are you asking? – Gone Nov 16 '12 at 16:56 @BillDubuque: Sorry for the imprecision; the question in the title is the one I meant to ask, the final paragraph was just me thinking out loud. I did adjust the question body accordingly. – Frerich Raabe Nov 16 '12 at 17:12 Related: (In the sense that your question may be an answer to it, or vice-versa) math.stackexchange.com/questions/12323/… – ShreevatsaR Nov 16 '12 at 17:15

In your first link, the discussion is regarding whether $0$ is a natural number, not that it is/isn't a number.
Finally, the $0/0 = 0$ argument is considered non-standard. That most mathematicians define $0/0 = \text{NaN}$ is not the same as $0 = \text{NaN}$ because these are competing definitions.