Re: [lojban] Using Lojban in 'very' defined contexts (eg. maths)

[Escape Landsome <escaaape@gmail.com>]

> That sounds pretty normal to me. It's like 'spelling' a number to verify
> it. Phone numbers are read the same way.

I think that's two very different things.

When you read a phone number or register a room number, or even give a
year, you give a MNEMONIC.  Saying nineteen-o-three or six-three-one
or saying a phone number in any of the numerous ways to segment it
(not forgetting the "normal numeral" way) : you just say some numeric
value which is used as a *menmonic* but FOO-BAR-THINGEY would do as
well as THREE-TWO-ONE.

That's also why you can use Heavenly Stems, which are a cyclic system
of patterns that emulate small integers.

But when you want to speak of a QUANTITY, it becoms important to tell
if some digit indicates a DOZEN, a HUNDRED, a TERABYTE, and so on.
*Weight* becomes an essential notion.   At least, it renders the
imagination of what the number means more easy to build up.  234 is 2
hundreds plus 3 tens plus 4 units, and 200 is simply 2 hundreds, so
you can sum 200 + 300 by thinking "2 + 3" hundreds, and then, act as
if "HUNDRED" was a mere noun.

(By the way, it's the same reason in fraction, there is a denominator
and a numerator.  TWO THIRDS is two things of the same kind, namely
"thirds".  The demoninator "third" encapsulates the denomination of
this kind.  The numerator numbers it, that is, it says there are two
of the kind)

.

So, let's not confuse MNEMONICS and QUANTITIES.

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