- #1
arivero
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In the "origin of zero" thread, I saw the following remark:
I had heard a different story, in a pythagorean mood: The first thing we can say is if a number, a magnitude, a rythm, a length, etc is odd or even, ie if it can be divided or not in equal parts. From this we get the smallest odd quantity, 3, and the smallest even, 2. The unity is not got because it can not be divided after all. So after getting the odd and even numbers, we get the unity, as the difference 3-2.
strid said:the thought I'm playing with for the moment is that every rational number has its origin in 1.
I had heard a different story, in a pythagorean mood: The first thing we can say is if a number, a magnitude, a rythm, a length, etc is odd or even, ie if it can be divided or not in equal parts. From this we get the smallest odd quantity, 3, and the smallest even, 2. The unity is not got because it can not be divided after all. So after getting the odd and even numbers, we get the unity, as the difference 3-2.