Re: Please welcome . . .

Staving Costentin Cornomorus:

>Nope. Zero ain't a counting number for me, or for
>most people. Using it as, for example, chapter or
>secion headings is counterproductive and one of
>the very few quibbles I have with modern language
>use.
As a physicist, I can tell you that the term "zeroth" comes originally from
the field of thermodynamics. The first, second and third laws of
thermodynamics correspond to the conservation of energy, the tendency of
entropy to increase in a closed system, and the definition of the zero
point of entropy respectively. Later, another law, stating that if two
bodies both equal in temperature to a third, they are equal in temperature
to each other, was added. This had originally been overlooked because it
seemed too obvious, but was now regarded as more fundamental than the
others. As such, it had to be numbered before them, and was hence termed
the zeroth law.

Pete

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