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near zero (mander.xyz)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (1 children)

i mean, mathematically speaking, every number that isn't zero, is further away from zero, than the number before it.

So there is a point to the statement of "approaching zero" as well "near zero" and "about zero" since 100 probably isn't about zero.

Also CS nerds would like to fight you about floating point values.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Whoa slow down there buddy. Proposing numbers before numbers like they are a given.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

as far as we can tell, mathematically, they are a given, and they never stop.

I'll wait for you to find the end of pi.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm not saying the numbers stop. But there are numbers where concepts like "closer to zero" or "number before [another number]" don't apply.

For example There is no sensible way to define a less-than for the complex numbers and thus they can't be ordered.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

i would argue that you can probably independently define an ordering mechanism. And then apply it.

You can just pretend that 100 is 0. I see no reason this shouldn't apply to everything else.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

What do you mean by independent? There is no more general and independent notion of ordering than a less-than operator. The article above oulines a mathematical proof that no such definition exists in a consistent way for the complex numbers.