Re: Types of numerals

On 1/2/06, Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote:
> I'm not totally sure what you're getting at here, but-- in Engl., I feel
> that "numeral" refers mainly to the written form of the number, and it
> sounds rather grade-school-ish at that:  "All right, children, write down
> the numeral "five"...." in which case it's simply a synomyn for "number" but
> with rather limited usage.  One does not hear, "There was a _numeral_ of
> people at the party..."
IME, one distinguishes digits from numerals from numbers.

A "digit" is a single symbol representing a numeric quantity whose
value is dependent upon its location in a place-oriented
representational system. So  0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 are all digits.
In hexadecimal, so are the letters A-F.  The number "10" is not a
digit, nor is the Roman numeral "I", although it occupies a role in
the Roman numeral system similar to that of the digits in place-value
systems.  The informatics term "bit" is a contraction of "binary
digit".

A "numeral" is a symbolic representation of a number, which may
comprise one or more digits or some non-digital mechanism.
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and 9 are also numerals; for that matter, so are
10, 2006, MMDCCLIX, and ,βψπβ´.

A "number" is the most general term, used for both of the above
meanings as well as the basic concept of quantity itself.
--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>