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[-] cucumber_sandwich@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

I'm not saying the numbers stop. But there are numbers where concepts like "closer to zero" or "number before [another number]" don't apply.

For example There is no sensible way to define a less-than for the complex numbers and thus they can't be ordered.

[-] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 months ago

i would argue that you can probably independently define an ordering mechanism. And then apply it.

You can just pretend that 100 is 0. I see no reason this shouldn't apply to everything else.

[-] cucumber_sandwich@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

What do you mean by independent? There is no more general and independent notion of ordering than a less-than operator. The article above oulines a mathematical proof that no such definition exists in a consistent way for the complex numbers.

this post was submitted on 18 May 2024
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