Science Memes

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Zero to hero (mander.xyz)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 84 points 8 months ago (25 children)

I just found out about this debate and it's patently absurd. The ISO 80000-2 standard defines ℕ as including 0 and it's foundational in basically all of mathematics and computer science. Excluding 0 is a fringe position and shouldn't be taken seriously.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (12 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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