Foot Note

Note:
Any number greater than ten but less than twenty is expressed as a pair of digits : a one (1) together with another digit - 1digit.
Example 11 for eleven , 12 for twelve etc ( I believe you already know ). Now comes the surprise - what about ten - you are taught to write it as 10.
That’s why Zero is not a number, the 1 has a positional value of 10 and hence it is already expressing ten so the zero is not really needed and it is meaningless. However, if the zero is left out then the 1 standing on its own has ambiguous value. Is it 1 or is it 10 ? It gets worse when we write 1 hundred and 1 expressed as 101. Without the zero 1 1 cannot be correctly interpreted. Is it 11 or is it a typo error or is it 2 separate ones?
h t u
1   1
If you identify the position of the units by writing it as above ( with the headings as taught in schools ) then you solve the ambiguity. However, in real life numbers are not written in that format because it’s not productive and cumbersome. People needed something to resolve this ambiguity and therefore, zero was invented - to be a place holder. By writing 101, 208, 10, 40 we are able to discern the real value of the symbols used. Zero written in these examples shows the positions of the non-zero digits. Hence, zero is just a place holder and is not a number. However, it is taught to have a value of nothing in Primary Schools and there is no harm to continue with that.

When somebody owe you money which he returns later your mind just forgets about the loan. It does not go through the process of identifying that the person owes you 0 dollar. In our mind there is no such thing as $5 - $5 = $0. This does not happen otherwise we would go crazy having to go around tagging everybody with a Owe - $0.
A number + 0 is something that can never happen as we don’t go around adding things that do not exist.
A number x 0 would be interpreted as add 0 times of that number. This absolutely don’t exist for the same reason as adding 0 to a number.
A number ÷ 0 is even crazier, how do you group nothing ?
Hence, operations with zero are abstractions and do not happen in real life.