Numerology derives occult and esoteric relationships between numbers and physical objects or living things. People who believe in numerology claim that numbers govern much of what happens in relationships, health, finances, and life in general. According to this belief, the numbers derived from a person's name and date of birth may be used to deduce things about personality, relationships, and even the future. There is no scientific proof that any of these claims are true, but this does not stop people from believing or being interested in the insights that numerology can give them. Numerology originated approximately in one thousand BCE when Roman and Hebrew numbers consisted of letters of the alphabet and the number zero had not yet been invented. Some of the numbers formed by letters were interpreted as words whose meaning could be scrutinized for mystical insights. Even today, some Roman numbers can be associated with English words and meanings. For example, 1009 (Roman: MIX) is an English verb and noun, 100 (Roman: C) is pronounced like SEE or SEA, 59 (Roman: LIX) is pronounced like LICKS or LIKES, and 40 (Roman: XL) is an abbreviation for EXTRA LARGE or is pronounced like EXCEL. These numerolinguistic associations can lead to many connotations. The Babylonians were the first to use the number zero as a place holder in the 3rd century BCE. The concept of zero as a number and not merely a symbol for separation was used in India by the 9th century CE. The use of the number zero was popularized in Europe during the 11th century CE by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. After the adoption of the Arabic number system, many numerology systems were developed to assign numerical values to the letters of the alphabet. The system known as gematria, which was originally developed for the Hebrew alphabet, computes values for words by adding the values of the letters. Words which have the same numerical equivalence are thought to share some occult connection. In contemporary terms, gematria corresponds to a hash function, and the numerical equivalence of two words is called a hash code collision. The following table illustrates a simple mapping of the English alphabet to numerical values. The characters of a word are substituted with the corresponding numbers, and the numbers are then added together to get the numerical value of the word.