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Another reason some mathematicians like to start them with 1 is because then you can write 1/n for some natural number n without needing to handle the possibili
by wetmore 13y ago
Another reason some mathematicians like to start them with 1 is because then you can write 1/n for some natural number n without needing to handle the possibility of a division by 0. As far as I've seen in classes so far, we tend to use |N = 0,1,2,... in algebra and |N = 1,2,3,... in analysis, where one uses 1/n a lot.
- e12e 13y agoInteresting. Having division defined (for a set) can certainly be useful. So division and indexing (as seen in the article here, indexing starts at 1) are two arguments for positive integers, and ranges and empty sets are arguments for non-negative integers.