Return-Path: Received: from kantti.helsinki.fi by xiron.pc.helsinki.fi with smtp (Linux Smail3.1.28.1 #1) id m0rnAHr-00007ZC; Fri, 10 Mar 95 21:23 EET Received: from fiport.funet.fi (fiport.funet.fi [128.214.109.150]) by kantti.helsinki.fi (8.6.10+Emil1.1/8.6.5) with ESMTP id VAA14129 for ; Fri, 10 Mar 1995 21:23:47 +0200 Received: from SEARN.SUNET.SE (MAILER@SEARN) by FIPORT.FUNET.FI (PMDF V4.3-13 #2494) id <01HNZD2SEYVK002MY6@FIPORT.FUNET.FI>; Fri, 10 Mar 1995 19:19:46 +0200 (EET) Received: from SEARN.SUNET.SE (NJE origin LISTSERV@SEARN) by SEARN.SUNET.SE (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 7677; Fri, 10 Mar 1995 20:20:04 +0100 Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 12:08:54 -0700 From: Chris Bogart Subject: Re: Numbers Sender: Lojban list To: Veijo Vilva Reply-to: Chris Bogart Message-id: <01HNZD2T500M002MY6@FIPORT.FUNET.FI> X-Envelope-to: veion@XIRON.PC.HELSINKI.FI Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 1080 Lines: 23 >la xorxes. cusku di'e >> With the interpretation of the paper, 20ji'i30 would be a number >> between 2010 and 2099, or something like that. > >More precisely (but not necessarily more accurately), it expresses a random >variable whose range is 2000-2099 and whose measure of central tendency >(exactly which measure is unspecified) is 2030. It would not be a symmetrical function then, with a range and central tendency like that. Jorge's method allows arbitrary specification of either the range (20ji'i30 = 20 to 30) or the central tendency (ji'i20 = about 20), but not both. Yours allows for both (2ji'i5 = 20 to 29, about 25) but the range must coincide with exact powers of ten. pe'i for normal inexact human speech John's method is exact enough and more powerful than Jorge's, but it's also less intuitive. It could be, though, that that's malrarna intuition that could/should be unleared if there's a better way. ____ Chris Bogart \ / ftp://ftp.csn.org/cbogart/html/homepage.html Quetzal Consulting \/ cbogart@quetzal.com