Abstract
It is a fair bet that your first conscious introduction to mathematics was when you learned to count: one apple, two apples, and so on. Well, professional mathematicians too start their activities by setting up a counting system. There is one slight difference between the system they adopt and the system you became familiar with: they include the number zero at the beginning. (Zero apples is a perfectly sensible counting number; it is, in fact, exactly the number of apples I have eaten so far today.) This system, the sequence
is called the natural numbers. The natural numbers form such a useful system that they are given a special name: ℕ.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Copyright information
© 1993 Mark Cartwright
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cartwright, M. (1993). Numbers, Vectors and Matrices. In: Groups. Dimensions of Mathematics. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12123-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12123-6_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-12125-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-12123-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)