[keeglin]

My first comment on HN; I have strong feelings on this topic.

I was specifically taught as a child that zero is neither even nor odd, because zero has no value. I don't think it was confusion or misunderstanding.

Understanding the value of "nothing" or "the opposite of something" is what separates us from most other brained-animals, correct?

I understand there are patterns that can be applied. However, I never once was misserved by that understanding, either through academics or physical life.

Ultimately, it's more upsetting today to try to reset that thought process in my mind. So to me, zero is neither even or odd, and I'm happy with that.

[ajarmst]

A reasonable case can be made that (if we employ the "is evenly divisible by 2/has 2 as a factor" definition) zero is not composite, so has no factors and therefore can't be even. I happen to disagree, but it's not clearly right or wrong. This is why when mathematicians from different subdisciplines/communities spend a fair bit of time on "when you use the term ... what do you mean?" Outside a shared definition of exactly what "even" means, the question is meaningless, and within one, it's trivial---the least interesting possible questions in mathematics, but we seem to spend a lot of time on them.