@[email protected] to Ask [email protected] • 2 months agoWhat is your favorite math constant that is NOT a real number?message-square43fedilinkarrow-up161
arrow-up161message-squareWhat is your favorite math constant that is NOT a real number?@[email protected] to Ask [email protected] • 2 months agomessage-square43fedilink
minus-squareOnno (VK6FLAB)linkfedilink1•2 months agoZero It’s the absence of a number and has all manner of interesting edge cases associated with it.
minus-square@[email protected]OPlinkfedilink14•2 months agoZero is the absence of a quantity, but it is still a number.
minus-square@[email protected]linkfedilink3•2 months agoFor a while 1 wasn’t considered to be a number either http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/elements/bookVII/defVII1.html
minus-square@[email protected]linkfedilinkEnglish5•2 months agoZero is a real number, but interestingly, it’s also a pure imaginary number. It’s the only number that’s both things at once.
minus-square@[email protected]OPlinkfedilink2•2 months agoIt gets deeper. It’s also the same as the 0-k-vector, the 0-k-blade, the 0-multivector, the only number that is its own square besides 1, etc…
minus-square@[email protected]linkfedilinkEnglish1•2 months agoThere are other idempotent numbers in the split-complex and q-adic (for non-prime q) numbers.
Zero
It’s the absence of a number and has all manner of interesting edge cases associated with it.
Zero is the absence of a quantity, but it is still a number.
For a while 1 wasn’t considered to be a number either http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/elements/bookVII/defVII1.html
Zero is a real number, but interestingly, it’s also a pure imaginary number. It’s the only number that’s both things at once.
It gets deeper. It’s also the same as the 0-k-vector, the 0-k-blade, the 0-multivector, the only number that is its own square besides 1, etc…
There are other idempotent numbers in the split-complex and q-adic (for non-prime q) numbers.
As I said … lots of edge cases :)