Yes.
That was a mistake. -- Raul On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Bo Jacoby <bojac...@yahoo.dk> wrote: > Didn't you swap 'cardinal' and 'ordinal' below? > > I think that 'first' and 'second' are ordinal numbers while 'zero', 'one' and > 'two' are cardinal numbers. > > Ordinal numbers identify items, while cardinal numbers identify in-betweens > by counting sets of items. > > > This century is century no 21. The first year of this century is year no > 2001, and the last year of this century is year no 2100. Many people > celebrated the new century when year 1999 turned into year 2000 - one year > too early! Embarrassing! > > When this century started, 2000 years had passed. When this century ends, > 2100 years have passed. > > Arithmetic is done on cardinal numbers, not on ordinal numbers. That is why > i.3 is 0 1 2, I suppose. > > A very useful arithmetic can be defined on ordinal fractions, but that is a > different story. > - Bo > > > > >>________________________________ >> Fra: Raul Miller <rauldmil...@gmail.com> >>Til: Programming forum <programming@jsoftware.com> >>Sendt: 17:15 søndag den 18. december 2011 >>Emne: Re: [Jprogramming] J Midterm exam 2011 >> >>Personally, I like the convention: >> >>decimal : ordinal : cardinal >>0 : zero : first >>1 : one : second >>2 : two : third >>... >> >>And while this is not the only convention that can be used, I think >>it's probably also important to emphasize that people do use different >>conventions at times. >> >>Another classic case where these sorts of distinctions can be >>important is "clock arithmetic". >> >>-- >>Raul >> >> >>On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 4:00 PM, Dan T. Abell <dab...@txcorp.com> wrote: >>> Yes, you're quite right about that. Which would explain >>> why I scrapped my initial (zeroth?) answer for one that >>> tried to coney a sense of delight in Henry's notation >>> as a tool of communication (as opposed to being perfectly >>> accurate). >>> >>> Cheers, >>> -Dan >>> >>> On 17 Dec 2011, at 13:50, Bo Jacoby wrote: >>> >>>> That does not make the first problem 'problem 0'. Henry's problems are >>>> items, not in-betweens. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>> ________________________________ >>>>> Fra: Dan T. Abell <dab...@txcorp.com> >>>>> Til: Programming forum <programming@jsoftware.com> >>>>> Sendt: 21:21 lørdag den 17. december 2011 >>>>> Emne: Re: [Jprogramming] J Midterm exam 2011 >>>>> >>>>> Ahhh, yes. But what a great way to emphasise that we >>>>> begin at zero. We begin our first trip about the sun at >>>>> age zero. Before the baker add that first donut, the box >>>>> contains zero donuts. ... >>>>> >>>>> We programmers train ourselves (and future programmers) >>>>> to count the jumps, use indices to label the in-betweens >>>>> (including that pesky leading "in-between" we call '0'), >>>>> and then work to catch all our off-by-one errors. >>>>> >>>>> -Dan >>>>> :-P >>>>> >>>>> On 17 Dec 2011, at 12:54, Bo Jacoby wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> when kids count they still say: one two three >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Dan T. Abell :: dabell at txcorp dot com :: 303.444.2452 >>>>> Tech-X Corp., 5621 Arapahoe Ave, Ste A, Boulder CO 80303 >>>>> http://www.txcorp.com :: 303.748.6894/c 303.448.7756/fx >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>> >>> -- >>> Dan T. Abell :: dabell at txcorp dot com :: 303.444.2452 >>> Tech-X Corp., 5621 Arapahoe Ave, Ste A, Boulder CO 80303 >>> http://www.txcorp.com :: 303.748.6894/c 303.448.7756/fx >>> >>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
