Question: What is closest to zero.

[leggy]

Oh my fucking god. Can you all stop being so fucking bent and get a life. Thanks.

 

[Louster]

Maths > you.

 

[Jonaldo]

Closest thing to a zero on these forums is probably Cyfr


/fluffle Cyfr

 

[Paradroid]

I don't want to add to the ambiguity of this topic, but yes, and, no.

As far as numer systems go, I think zero is as good a number as any - but number systems are relative concepts.

In the real world (and in theory) zero is the absence of whatever it is you're measuring (ie no ship in the harbour), but that's only true given an exact time and a specific spacial dimension...

...lets start at the beginning, if I have one beer on the table, and, I drink one beer...then there are zero beers left on the table...but, in reality, the beer hasn't vanished completely, it's in my stomach....if we go back, or forward, in time (ie if I order some more beer), then there's one beer on the table...!

So, if you want to measure the amount of beers on any given table, it depends when and where you do it (since a boozer's table has a higher probability of having beer on it, at any given time, than a tee-totallers)...

So, yeah, zero is a good conceptual number, if it exists (or doesn't).

See? Now you know what I mean...

 

[Paradroid]

Oh my fucking god. Can you all stop being so fucking bent and get a life. Thanks.

Here's a good example from leggy. The wording of his post suggests he's got zero interest in this topic, but by simpy posting a reply he has registered an interest - therefore, not zero!

 

[Driwen]

So, yeah, zero is a good conceptual number, if it exists (or doesn't).

same reasoning goes for one and all other numbers. So it doesnt really say anything as far as I can see wether zero is a number or not, as the reasoning goes more about wether any number really exists.