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[-] kogasa@programming.dev 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Ehh, among American academic mathematicians, including 0 is the fringe position. It's not a "debate," it's just a different convention. There are numerous ISO standards which would be highly unusual in American academia.

FWIW I was taught that the inclusion of 0 is a French tradition.

[-] xkforce@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

The US is one of 3 countries on the planet that still stubbornly primarily uses imperial units. "The US doesn't do it that way" isn't a great argument for not adopting a standard.

[-] Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I'm an American mathematician, and I've never experienced a situation where 0 being an element of the Naturals was called out. It's less ubiquitous than I'd like it to be, but at worst they're considered equally viable conventions of notation or else undecided.

I've always used N to indicate the naturals including 0, and that's what was taught to me in my foundations class.

[-] kogasa@programming.dev 2 points 2 years ago

Of course they're considered equally viable conventions, it's just that one is prevalent among Americans and the other isn't.

[-] Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 years ago

I think you're using a fringe definition of the word "fringe".

[-] kogasa@programming.dev 1 points 2 years ago
[-] holomorphic@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

I have yet to meet a single logician, american or otherwise, who would use the definition without 0.

That said, it seems to depend on the field. I think I've had this discussion with a friend working in analysis.

[-] kogasa@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago

I did say mathematician, not logician.

[-] holomorphic@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Logicians are mathematicians. Well, most of them are.

[-] kogasa@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago

But not all mathematicians are logicians.

[-] porl@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago
[-] pooberbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

This isn't strictly true. I went to school for math in America, and I don't think I've ever encountered a zero-exclusive definition of the natural numbers.

[-] kogasa@programming.dev 1 points 2 years ago
this post was submitted on 07 May 2024
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