Re: Numbers and math

Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 21 Sep 2000, taliesin the storyteller wrote:
>
> >  - do you form ordinals from cardinals? how? if not, how?
>
> Cardinal is one, ordinal is first, right?  (Sorry, I can't tell my -inals
> apart!)
    It's easy.  In order to use an ORDinal you must have an ORDering.  If
you have three apples, you can say there are "three" of them without
ordering them in any way, but you have to impose an order first before you
can say which one is the "third" one.

 ===========================================================================

             Dennis Paul Himes    <>    dennis@himes.connix.com
             homepage: http://www.connix.com/~dennis/dennis.htm
        Gladilatian page: http://www.connix.com/~dennis/glad/lang.htm

Disclaimer: "True, I talk of dreams; which are the children of an idle
brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy; which is as thin of substance as
the air."                      - Romeo & Juliet, Act I Scene iv Verse 96-99