See my notes on your explanation of Ordinal Fractions

Donna Y
[email protected]


> On Jun 8, 2018, at 3:40 AM, 'Bo Jacoby' via Chat <[email protected]> wrote:

I am beginning to understand some things  you are saying about your concept of 
Ordinal Fractions.  

Ideas that are explained and seem elegant, useful, or intuitive, may catch on.

I made comments between your assertions that may or not help you refine the 
presentation of your ideas.

you say:

> Cardinal numbers (0, 1, 2, . . .) are  including 0 (zero).
> Ordinal numbers (1, 2, 3, . . .) are  starting with 1 (first). There is no 
> "zeroth”.

It is better to use the same least number for the Cardinal and Ordinal numbers.

The set of natural numbers and zero is called the whole numbers . The set of 
whole numbers is usually denoted by the symbol W
W={0,1,2,3,4,5,6,…}

Cardinal Numbers and Ordinal Numbers are Natural Numbers—

Cardinals can be enumerated by ordinals and the two can be put into one-to-one 
correspondence.

Since you chose to use Ordinals {1 2 3…} I chose a definition of Natural 
numbers beginning with 1 which applies to the Ordinals and Cardinals in that 
system.

I was trying to impose 1 as the first element of both Cardinal and Ordinal 
numbers as they are both Natural numbers since it seems important to you for 
your Ordinal Fractions that Ordinal numbers start at 1

Peano tried to define a least number of axioms to derive all of Arithmetic and 
the Real numbers from the Natural numbers—his definitions and proofs
included the following

For Natural Numbers:
1 is not the successor of any number.
Every number except 1 has a predecessor.

The Peano axioms were meant to provide a rigorous foundation for the Natural 
numbers and provide the foundation to construct the Real numbers.
However a decade later Peano included 0 with the Natural Numbers and revised 
his Axioms

The Peano axioms that allow us to add up the world can be expressed as both 
including or excluding Zero. 
Zero absolutely exists and the functionality of arithmetic depends on it. 
However, its existence is actually formally undecidable. For this reason it 
must be axiomatized.
Usually the smallest natural number is given as either 0 or 1. It depends on 
what you hope to achieve in your subsequent development of number theory. 


Peano's Axioms

1. Zero is a number. 

2. If  is a number, the successor of  is a number. 

3. zero is not the successor of a number. 

4. Two numbers of which the successors are equal are themselves equal. 

5. (induction axiom.) If a set  of numbers contains zero and also the successor 
of every number in , then every number is in .

Ordinals are traditionally denoted by lower case Greek letters α, β, γ, δ, . . .

Cardinal numbers represent the total number of a group of objects vs. Ordinal 
numbers represent the position of an object in a linear sequence.

If you count a set of objects you might begin to count at 1 but if you ask how 
many objects there are the answer is sometimes 0—the answer may also be 0
if you ask how many are left.


>> There is arithmetic of cardinal numbers (including the J verbs + * ^ ! ) , 
>> but there is no arithmetic of ordinal numbers.

Finite Ordinals and Finite Cardinals correspond. The propositions of finite 
Cardinal arithmetic and Ordinal arithmetic correspond point by point.

For the infinite, things are different. 

> The codes of the UDC are important numerical objects, but they are neither 
> integers, nor decimal fractions, nor rational numbers, nor real numbers, nor 
> complex numbers, nor quaternions, nor vectors, nor matrices, nor functions, 
> nor operators. They have been neglected by mathematicians.


The UDC is a classification system using Real numbers, specifically decimal 
numbers (floating point) that are formated without leading zeros nor decimal 
separator
since UDC have no integers part but only decimal fractions (i.e. expressed in 
base 10). For ease of reading, the UDC code is usually punctuated after every 
third digit.

An important property of Real decimal fractions is that there is always more 
real numbers between any two real numbers. This makes Real numbers ideal for
the construction of compound numbers to denote sets of interrelated subjects 
that could never be exhaustively foreseen.


599.74  Carnivora (carnivorans)
599.744 Canidae. Ursidae. Musteloidea
599.744.2       Ursidae
599.744.21      Ursus (genus)
599.744.211     Brown bears (grizzly)
599.744.212     Polar bears

The work to UDC is maintaining the schedules that contain the outline of the 
various disciplines of knowledge, arranged in 10 classes and hierarchically 
divided and subdivided
and sub-subdivided. 



>  
> A new kind of numbers must be considered. I dubbed them  'ordinal fractions’

The only thing different is the application—the numbers map to tables or in 
other words a data base with a catalogue of subjects hierarchically divided.
They are a database key.

UDC codes are Real Numbers.  The advantage of Real Numbers for library science 
is that you can always find a code for a new book without having
to reclassify.  If you look at any two real numbers on a line, no matter how 
close together, you will find an infinite number of other real numbers—rational 
and irrational—between them. And if you were to choose two numbers from the 
infinity between your two numbers, you would find that even between these two 
new numbers, there exists an infinite amount of real numbers.

The set of Real numbers--members are infinite in number, and are arranged in 
order so that between any pair, an infinite number of new members can be 
intercalated without affecting the order of the original members of the series. 
...

the principle of abstraction implies the existence of sets the elements of 
which are all objects having a certain property

For instance, {x | x is blue} is the set of all blue objects. 
This illustrates the fact that the principle of abstraction implies the 
existence of sets the elements of which are all objects having a certain 
property.

The main table for UDC is

  MAIN TABLES
0  SCIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE. ORGANIZATION. COMPUTER SCIENCE. INFORMATION. 
DOCUMENTATION. LIBRARIANSHIP. INSTITUTIONS. PUBLICATIONS
1  PHILOSOPHY. PSYCHOLOGY
2  RELIGION. THEOLOGY
3  SOCIAL SCIENCES
5  MATHEMATICS. NATURAL SCIENCES
6  APPLIED SCIENCES. MEDICINE. TECHNOLOGY
7  THE ARTS. RECREATION. ENTERTAINMENT. SPORT
8  LANGUAGE. LINGUISTICS. LITERATURE
9  GEOGRAPHY. BIOGRAPHY. HISTORY 

It uses 10 Arabic numbers 0 to 9

In an ordered set, a collection of objects placed in some order, ordinal 
numbers are labels for the positions of those ordered objects.

By the way the term Zeroth was coined by physicists introducing a forth Law of 
Thermodynamics more fundamental than the three already well known

You said:

> . 
> A cardinal number, such as 'one', counts a set. 

It counts elements of a set. The number of elements in a set is the cardinal 
number of that set.

When counting the elements of a set you can count them in any order—a Cardinal 
Number represents a tally of the elements.


> An ordinal number, such as 'the first', identifies an element in a set.

You have introduced a definition so that the the forth Cardinal number is three 
since your least value Cardinal is 0 but your least value Ordinal is 1.

>  
> A cardinal fraction, such as 'one half', measures a part of a totality. 
> An ordinal fraction, such as 'the first half', identifies a part of a 
> totality. 
> Consider for simplicity the binary, rather than the decimal, notation.

Using a radix or base—all this information is there.

> one = 1 = 0001. The digit positions, right to left, indicate ones, twos, 
> fours, and eights, and the digit values are one-digit binary cardinal 
> numbers, 0 and 1.
> the first = 1 = 0001. This is the cardinal number corresponding to the 
> ordinal number in question.
> one half = 0.1 = 0.1000. The digit positions after the binary point indicate 
> halfs, fourths, eights, and sixteenths, and the digit values are one-digit 
> binary cardinal numbers, 0 and 1.
> the first half = ?????

introducing decimal fractions you are no longer speaking of Cardinal nor 
Ordinal numbers—these are fractions.

In English names of Cardinal numbers are one, two, three and Ordinals first, 
second, third and fractions if cutting into two-- half, quarter, eighths—don’t 
confuse a partial overlap on naming
rational fractions and the names used for ordinals to mean fractions are 
ordinal numbers. In other languages such as Polish there are different names 
for these three types of numbers.

The integers are the set of real numbers consisting of the natural numbers, 
their additive inverses and zero.
The set of integers is sometimes written J or Z  for short. The rational 
numbers are those numbers which can be expressed as a ratio between two 
integers. For example, the fractions 13
⅓ and −1111/8 are both rational numbers. All the integers are included in the 
rational numbers, since any integer z  can be written as the ratio z/1.

Given any two rational numbers, their sum, difference, product, and quotient is 
also a rational number (as long as we don't divide by 0).

An irrational number is a number that cannot be written as a ratio (or 
fraction).  In decimal form, it never ends or repe

The real numbers is the set of numbers containing all of the rational numbers 
and all of the irrational numbers.  The real numbers are “all the numbers” on 
the number line. 

½ is decimal 0.5 or binary 0.1 and 0.75 decimal is 0.11 binary

It is not always so simple—for example, 0.1 in decimal — to 20 bits — is 
0.00011001100110011001 in binary

since it is rounded off 0.00011001100110011001 in binary is 
0.09999942779541015625 in decimal



> My solution to this problem is

> the first half = 1 = 1000

> the second half = 2 = 2000

the numerals of binary numbers are 0 and 1


.0
.1
.01
.011
100
101
110

0.101 [2] = (1 x 2*-1) + (0 x 2*-2) + (1 x 2*-3)

> 
> the first fourth = 11 = 1100
> 
> the second fourth = 12 = 1200
> 
> the third fourth = 21 = 2100
> 
> the fourth fourth = 22 = 2200
> 
> the odd fourths = 01 = 0100
> the even fourths = 02 = 0200
> the sixteenth sixteenth = 2222

I am not clear on this—it seems needless and confusing. Have you actually 
implemented this and used it—can you describe your application.

> Note that the digit positions indicate halfs, fourths, eights, and 
> sixteenths, and the digit values are either 1 meaning first, and 2 meaning 
> second, or 0 meaning both. 1000 means: first half, both fourths, both eights, 
> both sixteenths. 'both' goes without saying, just as 0 goes without saying. 
> 1000 = 1 = first half. That is one reason for choosing 0 for 'both'. 
> I did not know the words hyponymy and hypernymy. Thanks! That is just what I 
> need. 
> In logic I let 1 and 2 represent True and False. 0 means unknown or 
> unimportant.


The UDC 5 or 500 is all of Math, 51 is sum subset etc.—this concept of the 
first half and the second half is not meaningful for UDC
Maybe you have another application in mind


≈

> 
> Cardinal numbers (0, 1, 2, . . .) are  including 0 (zero).
> Ordinal numbers (1, 2, 3, . . .) are  starting with 1 (first). There is no 
> "zeroth".
> There is arithmetic of cardinal numbers (including the J verbs + * ^ ! ) , 
> but there is no arithmetic of ordinal numbers.
> The codes of the UDC are important numerical objects, but they are neither 
> integers, nor decimal fractions, nor rational numbers, nor real numbers, nor 
> complex numbers, nor quaternions, nor vectors, nor matrices, nor functions, 
> nor operators. They have been neglected by mathematicians. 
> A new kind of numbers must be considered. I dubbed them  'ordinal fractions' 
> . 
> A cardinal number, such as 'one', counts a set. 
> An ordinal number, such as 'the first', identifies an element in a set. 
> A cardinal fraction, such as 'one half', measures a part of a totality. 
> An ordinal fraction, such as 'the first half', identifies a part of a 
> totality. 
> Consider for simplicity the binary, rather than the decimal, notation.
> one = 1 = 0001. The digit positions, right to left, indicate ones, twos, 
> fours, and eights, and the digit values are one-digit binary cardinal 
> numbers, 0 and 1.
> the first = 1 = 0001. This is the cardinal number corresponding to the 
> ordinal number in question.
> one half = 0.1 = 0.1000. The digit positions after the binary point indicate 
> halfs, fourths, eights, and sixteenths, and the digit values are one-digit 
> binary cardinal numbers, 0 and 1.
> the first half = ?????
> My solution to this problem is
> the first half = 1 = 1000
> the second half = 2 = 2000
> 
> the first fourth = 11 = 1100
> 
> the second fourth = 12 = 1200
> 
> the third fourth = 21 = 2100
> 
> the fourth fourth = 22 = 2200
> 
> the odd fourths = 01 = 0100
> the even fourths = 02 = 0200
> the sixteenth sixteenth = 2222
> Note that the digit positions indicate halfs, fourths, eights, and 
> sixteenths, and the digit values are either 1 meaning first, and 2 meaning 
> second, or 0 meaning both. 1000 means: first half, both fourths, both eights, 
> both sixteenths. 'both' goes without saying, just as 0 goes without saying. 
> 1000 = 1 = first half. That is one reason for choosing 0 for 'both'. 
> I did not know the words hyponymy and hypernymy. Thanks! That is just what I 
> need. 
> In logic I let 1 and 2 represent True and False. 0 means unknown or 
> unimportant.
> 

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