Subject: Re: [lojban] 'irrational' numbers

From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 00:44:10 -0400

At 12:36 AM 07/10/2001 +0100, And Rosta wrote:
>1. As I understand it, when numbers from -infinity to +infinity
>[I can't remember what they're called: real? natural?] 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.)

ni'e [selbri] converts a selbri to a quantifier (inverse of MOI)
mo'e [sumti] converts a sumti to a quantifier (inverse of li)

There is minimal usage history for either of these, and they exist as much 
for completeness as for having specific application. My original thought 
with ni'e would be for such vague or metaphorical collective quantifiers as 
a "gaggle" of geese or a "brace" of oxen. I could also imagine defining a 
function using a selbri (e.g. dugri), in which case one of these converters 
would turn a construct into the value of the function.

>2. What does "LI X" mean, where X is something other than a PA?

In addition to PA, li can take a delimited mathematical expression, in 
which case it means the value of that expression, or it can take a 
lerfu-string, in which case we are doing algebra, it can take either of the 
converted forms mentioned above, it can take an array marked with jo'i, or 
it can take a pointer variable, a set of values, and possibly other things 
using the LAhE family of operators, or it can take a forethought 
Gek-connected quantifier of any of these types.
--
lojbab [email-masked]
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org