From cowan@ccil.org Mon Jul 09 17:24:29 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: cowan@mercury.ccil.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_2_0); 10 Jul 2001 00:24:29 -0000 Received: (qmail 34672 invoked from network); 10 Jul 2001 00:24:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l10.egroups.com with QMQP; 10 Jul 2001 00:24:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mercury.ccil.org) (192.190.237.100) by mta1 with SMTP; 10 Jul 2001 00:24:28 -0000 Received: from cowan by mercury.ccil.org with local (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 15JlKP-0007zp-00; Mon, 09 Jul 2001 20:24:37 -0400 Subject: Re: [lojban] 'irrational' numbers In-Reply-To: from And Rosta at "Jul 10, 2001 00:36:47 am" To: And Rosta Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 20:24:37 -0400 (EDT) Cc: lojban@yahoogroups.com X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL66 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: X-eGroups-From: John Cowan From: John Cowan And Rosta scripsit: > 1. As I understand it, when numbers from -infinity to +infinity > [I can't remember what they're called: real? natural?] Context says you mean the real numbers. The natural numbers are 0, 1, 2, 3, ... (some definitions omit 0). > can't be > expressed as ratios, yet we want to refer to them, we name > them, as with e, pi and phi, for example. I'm wondering what > Lojban does. On the hand it could refer to the number by > means of a cmene or lo+brivla, but can such ordinary sumti > be used wherever numbers can? (E.g. in mekso.) Pi has its own cmavo, pai. For the others, youc an say "mo'e la xxx.", where "mo'e" converts a sumti to a math operand. > 2. What does "LI X" mean, where X is something other than a PA? Following "li" (or its fraternal twin "mo'e") there must be a mathematical expression, so only mekso words are allowed there. However, one can convert a sumti to an operand, as above, or a selbri to an operator with "na'u" (x1 is the result, x2 etc. are the operands). -- John Cowan cowan@ccil.org One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore --Douglas Hofstadter