3 ms·
No, the mathematical definition of counting (i.e. whether or not a set is countable) involves mapping to the natural numbers, which doesn’t include 0.
by atwood22 4y ago
No, the mathematical definition of counting (i.e. whether or not a set is countable) involves mapping to the natural numbers, which doesn’t include 0.
- kazinator 4y agoI don't think your definition is complete. We can count a set by mapping its elements to the natural numbers, and then identifying that number which is highest. However, we must have a provision for identifying zero as the highest when the set and mapping are empty.
- 8note 4y agoMath counting doesn't care where you start. You could start -400 if it's useful for the problem
- lupire 4y agoYou can name things however you want, but there is a canonical bijection to zero-based ordinals. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinal_number https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinal_number