Talk:Parity of zero

My idea for this article is that it can absorb quotes that are unnecessary at w:Evenness of zero. There are lots of quotes in the literature, many of which say almost the same thing, but in different ways. I think it's quite edifying to see how the students reason, in their own words.

The originators of the quotations aren't notable people, but by restricting the article to quotations that were reported in the education literature, we can still keep this article from ballooning with random people's thoughts. Melchoir 01:55, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and so my intentions are clear:

• This quotation list is currently experimental and short, but it will become much longer.
• The English Wikipedia article will ultimately be a featured article there.

Melchoir 01:58, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Notability

It's not just that the originators aren't notable, but the quotes don't seem particularly notable either. I think these quotes are really better suited to the WP article, where they illustrate the extent of children's discomfort or acceptance of the idea that zero is even. Just because something in WP quotes someone, doesn't mean it deserves a page in WQ. We are looking for notable quotations from notable people or notable creative works, and these don't seem to fill the bill. --Ubiquity 02:49, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

If the "notable people or notable creative works" part is the sticking point, then I can't complain: this page clearly doesn't fall in line with the mission of the project.

However, I'm curious about what you mean by saying that the quotes themselves aren't notable. What is it, exactly, that one wants from a quotation? It should express an idea in a way that I wouldn't have thought of myself, and that gives me some insight into the speaker's mind. I think "can't split it out, because you haven't got nowt" meets these goals, even if it isn't the most biting and pithy phrase ever.

Anyway, the WP article's strategy is theoretically independent of the survival of this page. If there is a WQ page, the WP article will still duplicate some of its material. And if there isn't a WQ page, the WP article will still have to omit most of its material. There's simply too much. Melchoir 03:40, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

OK, your points are well-taken. I reformatted the page to emphasize the articles rather than the quotes themselves. I think I can live with this now, I hope you can too. --Ubiquity 16:18, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Interesting idea... yes, I can certainly live with this. Thanks! Melchoir 01:59, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Unsourced

• The importance of the creation of the zero mark can never be exaggerated. This giving to airy nothing, not merely a local habitation and a name, a picture, a symbol, but helpful power, is the characteristic of the Hindu race from whence it sprang. It is like coining the Nirvana into dynamos. No single mathematical creation has been more potent for the general on-go of intelligence and power.
  • G. B. Halsted

• ...a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity and the great ease which it lent to all computations put our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions.
  • Pierre-Simon Laplace

• The point about zero is that we do not need to use it in the operations of daily life. No one goes out to buy zero fish. It is in a way the most civilized of all the cardinals, and its use is only forced on us by the needs of cultivated modes of thought.
  • Alfred North Whitehead

• ...a fine and wonderful refuge of the divine spirit – almost an amphibian between being and non-being.
  • Gottfried Leibniz