Natural numbers

greg   Saturday, April 23, 2005, 23:17 GMT
Someone: 'whole numbers' works too in French : <nombres entiers>.
...   Sunday, April 24, 2005, 01:58 GMT
It was the Indians that came up with zero, not the arabs.
..   Sunday, April 24, 2005, 02:09 GMT
Zero comes from the Arabic word "Sifr".
Deborah   Sunday, April 24, 2005, 02:21 GMT
<< It was the Indians that came up with zero, not the arabs. >>

True. However, Frances's post is true inasmuch as the concept was introduced *to the Europeans* by the Arabs.
Lazar   Sunday, April 24, 2005, 02:27 GMT
<<the concept was introduced *to the Europeans* by the Arabs.>>

The same can be said of the decimal numeral system, which, though invented in India, was introduced to Europe by the Arabs and thus is referred to as "Arabic numerals".
Damian   Sunday, April 24, 2005, 08:37 GMT
Whole numbers
Kirk   Sunday, April 24, 2005, 08:59 GMT
Ohh...yeah, in elementary school we definitely learned the term "whole numbers" in contrast to decimals, which apparently aren't "whole" enough. Never heard the term "natural numbers" before, tho.
Damian   Sunday, April 24, 2005, 10:29 GMT
Seeing as we've gone all numerical, this'll get your integers all in a twist:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/24/wmath24.xml

And a Frenchman too! Mon dieu! :-)
Deborah   Sunday, April 24, 2005, 14:18 GMT
I should add that the concept of zero developed independently in some ancient cultures before it did in India. But it was from India that zero spread to the rest of Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Jim   Monday, April 25, 2005, 04:17 GMT
I don't think I ever came across the term "natural numbers" until I got to University.