• wellbuddyweek@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Actually, those are not the same. Natural numbers include zero, positive integers do not. She shoud definately use ‘big naturals’.

    Edit: although you could argue that it doesnt matter as 0 is arguably neither big nor large

    • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 days ago

      Natural numbers only include zero if you define it so in the beginning of your book/paper/whatever. Otherwise it’s ambiguous and you should be ashamed of yourself.

      • wellbuddyweek@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        Fair enough, as a computer scientist I got tought to use the Neumann definition, which includes zero, unless stated differently by the author. But for general mathematics, I guess it’s used both ways.

    • Zwiebel@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      Natural numbers include zero

      That is a divisive opinion and not actually a fact

    • errer@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Big naturals in fact include two zeroes:

      (o ) ( o)

      Spaces and parens added for clarity

    • stebo@sopuli.xyz
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      2 days ago

      Strictly positive numbers, Z0+, don’t include zero. Positive numbers aka naturals, Z+ = N, do.

      Edit: this is what I’ve learned at school, but according to wikipedia the definitions of these vary quite a bit

    • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Natural numbers include zero

      Only if you’re French or a computer scientist or something! No one else counts from zero.

      There’s nothing natural about zero. The famously organized and inventive Roman Empire did fine without it and it wasn’t a popular concept in Europe until the early thirteenth century.

      If zero were natural like 1, 2, 3, 4, then all cultures would have counted from zero, but they absolutely did not.

          • SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 day ago

            I think about this in terms can I have of something (indivisible), and sure enough I can have 0 apples (yeah, yeah, divisible), bruises, grains of sand in my pocket

            • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              I think you’re trying to explain to me what zero means while I’m trying to explain that it’s not where numbers numbers start of from. It’s where array offsets start (but making humans make that distinction instead of compilers is on obvious own goal for language designers who weren’t intending to make off by one errors more frequent). It’s where set theory starts, but it’s absolutely not where counting starts, and number starts with counting. It’s not a natural number.