My Hero, Zero

Zero?

Yeah, Zero is a wonderful thing.
In fact, Zero is my hero!

How can Zero be a hero?

Well, there are all kinds of heroes, you know.
A man can get to be a hero
For a famous battle he fought...
Or by studying very hard
And becoming a weightless astronaut.

And then there are heroes of other sorts,
Like the heroes we know from watching sports.
But a hero doesn't have to be a grown up person, you know,
A hero can be a very big dog
Who comes to your rescue,
Or a very little boy who's smart enough to know what to do.

But let me tell you about my favorite hero.

My hero, Zero, such a funny little hero,
But till you came along,
We counted on our fingers and toes.
Now you're here to stay
And nobody really knows
How wonderful you are.
Why we could never reach a star,
Without you, Zero, my hero,
How wonderful you are.

What's so wonderful about a zero?
It's nothing, isn't it?

Sure, it represents nothing alone.

But place a zero after 1
And you've got yourself a 10.
See how important that is?
When you run out of digits,
You can start all over again.
See how convenient that is?

That's why with only ten digits including zero,
You can count as high as you could ever go...
Forever, towards infinity,
No one ever gets there, but you could try.

With 10 billion zeros,
From the cavemen till the heroes,
Who invented you,
They counted on their fingers and toes
And maybe some sticks and stones, or rocks and bones
And their neighbors' toes.
You're here,
And nobody really knows
How wonderful you are.
Why we could never reach the star,
Without you, Zero, my hero,
Zero, how wonderful you are.

Place one zero after any number
And you've multiplied that number by 10.
See how easy that is.
Place two zeros after any number
And you've multiplied that number by 100.
See how simple that is.
Place three zeros after any number,
And you've multiplied that number by 1,000.

Et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad astra, forever and ever,
With zero, my hero, how wonderful you are.