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Preposterous?????

April 22 2005 at 7:24 PM
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Response to Denumerability

 
What is so preposterous about consulting a dictionary, actually several dictionaries, about the usage of a word? And in fact I did ask if my perception was right or wrong.

About "denumerable" Merriam Webster says "capable of being put into one-to-one correspondence with the positive integers".

The American Heritage Dictionary says "Capable of being put into one-to-one correspondence with the positive integers; countable".

The Encarta Dictionary says 'countable: able to form a one-to-one correspondence with the positive integers [Early 20th century. Formed from late Latin denumerare “to count out,” from Latin numerare “to number” '.

Synonyms for "denumerable" have included enumerable, countable, and numerable.


None of those definitions or synonyms hint that "denumerable" and "infinite" are kin if not quite the same. The specialized terminology is used by mathematicians and transfinite theorists, a specialty that I am sure few of us, including me, have ever heard of before.


 
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Responses

  1. Yes - Bill on Apr 22, 11:18 PM
    1. No - Ray Haupt on Apr 25, 8:54 PM
      1. Dictionaries and technical terminology - Bill on Apr 27, 12:30 PM
        1. Re: Dictionaries and technical terminology - Ray haupt on Apr 27, 1:34 PM
          1. allow me to venture ... - Al on Apr 27, 2:40 PM
            1. A friend in need is a friend indeed! - Bill on Apr 27, 3:30 PM
          2. You still don't quite have it - Bill on Apr 27, 3:27 PM
            1. I am having trouble with this concept - Ray haupt on Apr 27, 4:24 PM
              1. The finite vs. the infinite - Bill on Apr 27, 5:33 PM
                1. question - Al on Apr 28, 12:57 PM
                  1. Well, it won't be a technical sense. - Bill on Apr 28, 4:16 PM
                    1. but, does it "mean sh*t to a tree"? - Al on Apr 28, 8:31 PM
                      1. Who's wasting whose time?? - Bill on Apr 29, 11:30 AM
                        1. elaboration - Al on Apr 29, 12:51 PM
                          1. I'm working on... - Bill on Apr 29, 3:31 PM
                            1. golden showers are officially outré - Al on Apr 29, 4:08 PM
                              1. Re: Golden Showers - Bill on Apr 30, 1:00 PM
                                1. with baited breath, barely contained ... - Al on Apr 30, 2:45 PM
                                  1. The ground rules keep shifting - Bill on Apr 30, 5:24 PM
                                    1. wow --- no they don't - Al on May 1, 10:51 AM
                                      1. OK... - Bill on May 1, 12:25 PM
     
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