Re: CHAT: mathematics

Yown Ha Ley wabbe:


> On Fri, 17 Nov 2000, Carlos Thompson wrote:
>
> > ObConlang
> >
> > In my proposal for a math module for NGL I proposed the following
> > names for the set of numbers ({duol} means number):
> >   duolniri :  natural numbers (from niri A - hard)
> >   duolku'i : rational numbers (from ku'i V - compare)
> >   duolrino :  real numbers (from rino S - oil)
> >   duolitro :  imaginary numbers (from itro A - ortogonal)
>
> I like the use of "compare" for the rationals, but could you
enlighten me
> as to how "oil" suggests real numbers?  I confess I'm not seeing the
> connection myself, but I'm eager to hear.  :-)
Well, kind of joke.  Well, the history comes this way: rational
numbers are not continuum, topologically speaking.  This means that
you can have a series that seems to converge analyzing the series by
itself:
  Given the series {a_n}; given any positive real epsilon, there is a
natural N shuch as any naturals n > N and m > N, | a_n - a_m | <
epsilon.
  However such a series could not converge in Q.  This means that Q is
full of wholes.

A fluid is a substance that can fill wholes, and some fluids are
better than other filling all those wholes.  Water is such a fluid,
but some kinds of oil make a better job filling the wholes.  Well.

> > Some posibilities I'm considering for integers:
> >   duolzaut : from steam/trunk numbers
> >   duolzoih : from root numbers
> >   duolzuoh : from wild numbers
> >   duolzuy :  from wing numbers
> > Other attested roots begining in {z} mean: officer, close, brain,
to
> > rule, danger, thogh, touch, mils alcoholic brevage, condition, to
> > develop, arm/hand, dependent, comb, must, predictable, China, to
slip,
> > back and forth, child, play, fun, if, six, all.
>
> Hmm.  Are your confolk winged?  What did they originally use as
counting
> devices?  Feathers maybe?  I could see "from wing numbers" in that
case,
> and it's such a lyrical name, conceptually.
Well, Tokcir (aka NGL) is not a language for a conpeople but reather
is a language for us and for future people (human or not human).

> > For complex numbers I have less ideas, but those roots begining in
C
> > mean: seven, front/chest, to react, to act, board, lens, to let,
to
> > pump, to approve, tool, to mark, to open, essentially,
reazon/logic,
> > time/weather, Chile, chimpanzee, bright/white/ugly, error,
puberscent,
> > with (instrumental), building, art, to burn, deep/low.
> >
> > Some ideas which of these words would be a nice analogy for
complex
> > numbers?
>
> Complex numbers?  Hmm.  I've seen complex numbers used in E&M but
darned
> if I remember the context.  (I barely escaped from that class with
my
> sanity; the prof was just awful.)  Are they used in optics?  (I
never got
> that far in college physics.)  Then "lens" would be a lovely name.
>
> Strange as English names for number-types are, I rather like
> them--they're almost a mnemonic in themselves for the history of
their
> development.  I haven't actually figured out the history of
mathematics
> in relation to my own conlang; I am quite, quite curious about
Chinese
> civilization's early lead in mathematics and how it developed there,
but
> haven't actually gotten around to researching it.  I've read _The
> Mathematical Experience_ by Davis & Hersh as well as _A History of
> Mathematics_ by someone else, but both focus on "mainstream" Western
> mathematics and much less so on, hmm, comparative systems in
different
> cultures.  I wonder if this is something anthropologists & linguists
> would have more material on...?  Or is it too specialized?
Has anybody hear studied Maths out of the western school?  In my
natlang numbers these sets are "números naturales", "enteros",
"racionales", "irracionales", "reales", "imaginarios", "complejos",
those Spanish spoken mathematicians that brought the names where quite
imaginative, as you can see.

> YHL