What Is A Whole Number In Math Multiplication

In mathematics, natural numbers are the ordinary counting numbers 1, 2, 3, ... (sometimes zero is also included). Since the development of set theory by Georg Cantor, it has become customary to view such numbers as a set. There are two conventions for the set of natural numbers: it is either the set of positive integers {, , , ...} according to the traditional definition; or the set of non-negative integers {, 1, 2, ...} according to a definition first appearing in the nineteenth century.

Natural numbers have two main purposes: counting ("there are 6 coins on the table") and ordering ("this is the 3rd largest city in the country"). These purposes are related to the linguistic notions of cardinal and ordinal numbers, respectively. (See English numerals.) A more recent notion is that of a nominal number, which is used only for naming.

Properties of the natural numbers related to divisibility, such as the distribution of prime numbers, are studied in number theory. Problems concerning counting and ordering, such as partition enumeration, are studied in combinatorics.

History of natural numbers and the status of zero

The natural numbers had their origins in the words used to count things, beginning with the number 1.

The first major advance in abstraction was the use of numerals to represent numbers. This allowed systems to be developed for recording large numbers. The ancient Egyptians developed a powerful system of numerals with distinct hieroglyphs for 1, 10, and all the powers of 10 up to one million. A stone carving from Karnak, dating from around 1500 BC and now at the Louvre in Paris, depicts 276 as 2 hundreds, 7 tens, and 6 ones; and similarly for the number 4,622. The Babylonians had a place-value system based essentially on the numerals for 1 and 10.

A much later advance in abstraction was the development of the idea of zero as a number with its own numeral. A zero digit had been used in place-value notation as early as 700 BC by the Babylonians but they omitted it when it would have been the last symbol in the number. The Olmec and Maya civilization used zero as a separate number as early as the 1st century BC, but this usage did not spread beyond Mesoamerica. The concept as used in modern times originated with the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta in 628. Nevertheless, medieval computers (e.g. people who calculated the date of Easter), beginning with Dionysius Exiguus in 525, used zero as a number without using a Roman numeral to write it. Instead nullus, the Latin word for "nothing", was employed.

The first systematic study of numbers as abstractions (that is, as abstract entities) is usually credited to the Greek philosophers Pythagoras and Archimedes. Note that many Greek mathematicians did not consider 1 to be "a number", so to them 2 was the smallest number.

Independent studies also occurred at around the same time in India, China, and Mesoamerica.

Several set-theoretical definitions of natural numbers were developed in the 19th century. With these definitions it was convenient to include 0 (corresponding to the empty set) as a natural number. Including 0 is now the common convention among set ...