Talk:Integer
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by DanAP (talk | contribs) at 14:07, February 22, 2013. It may differ significantly from current revision.
- positive integers: are these called counting numbers, natural numbers, or whole numbers?
- zero and the positive integers: what are these called (besides "nonnegative integers"?)
We need to provide simple and reliable definitions. Students are looking to us for answers. --Ed Poor Talk 12:27, 19 November 2008 (EST)
I like this web site:
http://www.mathsisfun.com/whole-numbers.html
Counting Numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …
Including zero we get Whole Numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …
Allowing negatives => Integers: ... -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …
- I'd prefer the standard of MathWorld. We should try to avoid the intrinsic ambiguity of the term whole numbers --BRichtigen 17:25, 19 November 2008 (EST)
Still confusing
Coming back almost 5 years later, I see confusion between university-level definitions which only 1% of our readers will care about, and elementary school usage. Let's put the formal definitions at the end of the article, in case anyone needs that advanced info - but let's not confuse the ordinary or typical reader. --Ed Poor Talk 09:03, 22 February 2013 (EST)
- Do we even need the confusing symbols, like the big Z? 99% of our readers aren't interested in that. Maybe all that kind of stuff should be deleted? DanAP 09:07, 22 February 2013 (EST)