This is what we’ve been taught as well. 0 is a whole number, but not a natural number.
Comment on Zero to hero
SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip 6 months ago
0 is not a natural number. 0 is a whole number.
The set of whole numbers is the union of the set of natural numbers and 0.
And009@lemmynsfw.com 6 months ago
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
Whole numbers are integers, integer literally means whole.
randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 6 months ago
Does the set of whole numbers not include negatives now? I swear it used to
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
That might be integers, but I have no idea.
Monstera@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Integer == whole
www.etymonline.com/word/integer
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
An English dictionary is not really going to tell you what mathematicians are doing. Like, its goal is to describe what the word “integer” means (in various contexts), it won’t tell you what the “integer series” is.
math.stackexchange.com/…/what-are-the-whole-numbe…
The gist I see is that it’s kind of ambiguous whether the whole number series includes negatives or not, and in higher math you won’t see the term without a strict definition. It’s much more likely you’d see “non-negative integers” or the like.
anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
I would say that whole numbers and integers are different names for the same thing.
In german the integers are literally called ganze Zahlen meaning whole numbers.