>In math, "5" is all of those things simultaneously, but in Haskell it can only be one at a time. How is that? Excerpts from ghci dialog: Prelude> :t 5 5

>In math, "5" is all of those things simultaneously, but in Haskell it can only be one at a time. How is that? Excerpts from ghci dialog: Prelude> :t 5 5 :: (Num t) => t class (Num a) => Fractional a where (/) :: a -> a -> a recip :: a -> a fromRational :: Rational -> a Prelude Data.Complex> :i RealFrac class (Real a, Fractional a) => RealFrac a where ... Prelude Data.Complex> :i RealFloat class (RealFrac a, Floating a) => RealFloat a where ... Prelude Data.Complex> :i Complex data (RealFloat a) => Complex a = !a :+ !a instance (RealFloat a) => Eq (Complex a) So, 5 is an Int, Integer, Rational, Double and Complex (which, actually, could be Complex Int or Complex Double).