What sort of difference are you referring to? If it makes no difference which number system is used, why do you ask me to specify a number system in order to validate my question?
Seriously Bill S
Let do a simple versions for you to see the problem if your number system only allows positive integers then zero and negative numbers are illegal and not valid. Many what we call primitive cultures have that situation in there numbering systems.
Lets look at a few
Australian Aboriginals have no zero and no negatives and no decimals so if I was an Australian Aboriginal I would have some interesting answers for you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_enumerationThere is no letter for Zero in Roman numerals because they didn't have it either the concept either but they did have fractions. So again if I was a ancient roman I would have some interesting but different answers for you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numeralsNow if we go forward you were taught the REAL NUMBER system at school so you are one up from these primitive cultures. The problem is there is a group of numbers that you can't deal with under that system and some you would have dealt with at school like irrational and repeating numbers. Simple Pi for example can not be written under that system you can only ever approximate it to some number of decimal places or write it in a special symbolic way and you can't use it in that format.
What I am suggesting to you is consider that part of your problem may be you and your primitive number culture and you are giving me interesting answers
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If you go to the highest number system we as human culture in the 20th Century know which is Octonions INFINITY presents no problem you can even do all arithmetic operations with it.
Have you thought that that is because I keep getting the same evasive, irrelevant responses?
There is nothing evasive about my answer it's very blunt have you consider part of your problem with the questions could be your ignorance in some of your assumptions.
If stupid questions were six inches tall, that would be a six-footer! What degree of presumption does one have to aspire to in order to think he/she can know what the Universe uses? Are you asking what numbering system scientists use when trying to understand the Universe? If so, perhaps you should take your own advice and ask the right question. If not, you should justify your presumption.
See here again you miss the problem any measurement has an accuracy is it 6 inchs, 6.0001 inchs or 6.00010001.... recurring inches. All scientific measurement is reported with an accuracy look at any scientific paper data .... only layman think 6 inches is actually 6 inches
So your 6 inches to me is 6 inches +- some uncertainty to this janitor and you will never be able to convince me otherwise
Any measurement requires a truncation of the number to some sort of universal grid which in our universe is a Plank distance. Your little REAL NUMBER SYSTEM you were taught at school can not deal with such a cutoff because there is no hint of what precision you need to use.
You have the same issue when you are faced with the common calculator and you want PI what you get is some rounded value that is the best approximation it can do with the decimal point accuracy available. Most calculators are unsuitable for astronomical calculations because they do not have the required precision.
Surely you have thought about this that the whole conservation of energy would be breakable under such a system like the fixed precision accuracy of a calculator. You could engineer situations to exploit the fixed decimal precision roundoff.We even give it a name "Salami slicing" (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salami_slicing)
This question is meaningless unless one has first answered the question: “Is infinity a number?”
Under Australian Aboriginal numeric no it's not
Under Ancient Roman numeric no it's not
Under the REAL NUMBER SYSTEM no it's not (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_number)
Under COMPLEX NUMBER SYSTEM can be argued either way depending on field of use.
Under QUATERNION NUMBER SYSTEM yes it is.
Under OCTONION NUMBER SYSTEM yes it is.
So which numeric system do you propose we use?
You may also please read the warning under Real numbers
QUOTE: "These descriptions of the real numbers are not sufficiently rigorous by the modern standards of pure mathematics. "If you want it in layman speak the real number system is too primitive to be used for anymore for pure mathematics and I am asking you to consider is it therefore valid to use it for science discussion on the universe.
I will leave the time stuff for now because that gets even trickier with concepts buts lets see if we can work the number system you want to use on the universe and why you make that choice?
This may provide you help thinking about it:
https://www.math.toronto.edu/mathnet/answers/infinity.html