From a.rosta@dtn.ntl.com Sat Jul 08 20:43:10 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 1655 invoked from network); 9 Jul 2000 03:43:10 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by m4.onelist.org with QMQP; 9 Jul 2000 03:43:10 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO relay3-gui.server.ntli.net) (194.168.4.200) by mta1 with SMTP; 9 Jul 2000 03:43:10 -0000 Received: from m8-mp1-cvx1c.gui.ntl.com ([62.252.12.8] helo=andrew) by relay3-gui.server.ntli.net with smtp (Exim 3.03 #2) id 13B7qi-0000ig-00 for lojban@egroups.com; Sun, 09 Jul 2000 04:33:44 +0100 To: "lojban" Subject: RE: [lojban] 2 maths questions Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2000 04:42:58 +0100 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 From: "And Rosta" X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 3505 John: > On Fri, 7 Jul 2000, Thorild Selen wrote: > > > What you really want to say is probably that the set of even > > numbers is a _proper subset_ of the set of integers, so there > > is certainly a well known name for this relation. > > Yes, but it isn't quantifiable. I want to able to say that > the set of integers is twice as "thick" ("dense" is already used > for a different property) as the set of evens, and that the set > of evens is 500,000 times as "thick" as the set of multiples of > one million. What is density? [Give me dimbo's answer only.] Anyway, I originally was trying to ask (i) whether "thickness" is a recognized notion, and (ii) how to say it in Lojban. I don't at all understand pc's or C.D.Wright's replies, I'm afraid. All replies the set of whose addressees includes me should be expressed in a maximally elementary and unelliptical way, especially if any maths is involved. (Although I elected to receive formal instruction in mathematics for two years beyond the legal minimum, my classes were scheduled at a time of day at which any averagely hedonistic teenager is asleep, and in a damascene and fatefully pivotal moment of losses-cutting I decided to abandon my studies in this exacting discipline.) > What I don't know is whether this notion of "thickness" can be > extrapolated beyond the sets which are multiples of some integer. > How "thick" is the set of primes relative to the set of integers, > for example? It is of uneven thickness. Fairly thick in some areas and fairly thin in others. Like trains in peak and offpeak hours. And, like buses, they often come in pairs. --And.