Neither positive nor negative ?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers around the classification of numbers as positive, negative, or neither, particularly in the context of distance and directional values. Participants debate whether numbers like 2 and 4 can be considered neither positive nor negative, ultimately concluding that only zero fits this definition. The concept of distance is explored, with arguments that while distance is typically nonnegative, directed distances can imply a sign. The conversation also touches on the limitations of a simplistic numerical system when trying to categorize attributes like gender, emphasizing the need for a more complex framework to include additional dimensions. Overall, the consensus is that positive and negative numbers are clearly defined, and absolute values are always nonnegative.
phya
Messages
171
Reaction score
0
If we require that the north is positive number,For example +10Km,South for the negative number,For example -10Km,So, what is the number of 10 km east then?

I think there are other neither positive nor negative,Not only 0 is neither positive nor negative .

Therefore, a number of absolute value is not positive number,Is neither positive nor negative.

For example,|-2|= 2,|+4|= 4
2 and 4 are neither positive nor negative.

Distance should not be a positive number.Distance should be neither positive nor negative.
 
Last edited:
Mathematics news on Phys.org
phya said:
If we require that the north is positive number,For example +10Km,North for the negative number,For example -10Km,
What are you saying here?
phya said:
So, what is the number of 10 km east then?

I think there are other neither positive nor negative,Not only 0 is neither positive nor negative .
No, 0 is the only real number that is neither positive nor negative. All other real numbers are either positive or negative.
phya said:
Therefore, a number of absolute value is not positive number,Is neither positive nor negative.

For example,|-2|= 2,|+4|= 4
2 and 4 are neither positive nor negative.
Baloney. Any real number that is less than 0 is negative; any real number that is greater than 0 is positive. -2 is negative, since - 2 < 0. 4 is positive, since 4 > 0.


phya said:
Distance should not be a positive number.Distance should be neither positive nor negative.

Distance is typically nonnegative, but directed distance (e.g. 5 units forward or 8 units backward) can have a connotation of sign.
 
There is a reason why it is called a number line. If you want to involve 2 dimensions then you need a coordinate system that has two real numbers (x,y) to describe every point in the system.
So, 10km East breaks away from the 1 dimensional line that the numbers lie on that are representing North and South which means 10km East cannot be represented by a number in the typical sense if 10km North = 10 and 10km South = -10.
 
Mark44 said:
Distance is typically nonnegative, but directed distance (e.g. 5 units forward or 8 units backward) can have a connotation of sign.

If the distance is only the size, then there being no sign.If the distance is typically nonnegative,Then the distance is a direction.
 
phya said:
If the distance is only the size, then there being no sign.
Sure.
phya said:
If the distance is typically nonnegative,Then the distance is a direction.
?
 
Mark44 said:
Sure.
So,Distance should be neither positive nor negative.
 
Mark44 said:
?

directed distance .
 
Mentallic said:
There is a reason why it is called a number line. If you want to involve 2 dimensions then you need a coordinate system that has two real numbers (x,y) to describe every point in the system.
So, 10km East breaks away from the 1 dimensional line that the numbers lie on that are representing North and South which means 10km East cannot be represented by a number in the typical sense if 10km North = 10 and 10km South = -10.


If we require that the female is positive number,For example +10,Male for the negative number,For example -10,So, what is the number of 10 Asexual then?
 
phya said:
So,Distance should be neither positive nor negative.
No, distance is nonnegative: either positive or zero.
 
  • #10
Mark44 said:
No, distance is nonnegative: either positive or zero.
:wink:

phya: If the distance is only the size, then there being no sign.
Mark44: Sure.
phya: So,Distance should be neither positive nor negative.

This is the correct logic.
 
  • #11
phya said:
If we require that the female is positive number,For example +10,Male for the negative number,For example -10,So, what is the number of 10 Asexual then?
This doesn't work. You are trying to measure three attributes but have only two directions. You need another dimension.

It's the same thing with your first example. If going east is considered the positive direction, then going west would be considered the negative direction. For example, + 8 would mean 8 units to the east, and -4 would be 4 units to the west. You can't work in another direction in this simple system, as Mentallic already mentioned.

It seems to me that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how numbers work. A number such as 6 is positive. It could be written as +6, but that + sign is not needed, since 6 is already positive. The sign has to be present for negative numbers, though, such as -5.
 
  • #12
Mark44 said:
This doesn't work. You are trying to measure three attributes but have only two directions. You need another dimension.

It's the same thing with your first example. If going east is considered the positive direction, then going west would be considered the negative direction. For example, + 8 would mean 8 units to the east, and -4 would be 4 units to the west. You can't work in another direction in this simple system, as Mentallic already mentioned.

It seems to me that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how numbers work. A number such as 6 is positive. It could be written as +6, but that + sign is not needed, since 6 is already positive. The sign has to be present for negative numbers, though, such as -5.

You do not understand.If we require that the female is positive number,For example +10 man,Male for the negative number,For example -10 woman,So, what is the number of 10 person (neither female nor male )then?
 
  • #13
Abstract person.
 
  • #14
Why are these males and females given the value 10? We used 10 for north because it was 10km north, our unit being the kilometre. What is the unit for the values representing the people?
However, introducing an abstract concept like this into the mathematics of magnitudes, there most likely won't be any reasonable answer since it is not a reasonable question.

In my garden, each apple I have is given the value +1 while each orange I have is given the value -1. When you introduce bananas into the problem then it becomes meaningless.
 
  • #15
I'm not 100% sure what you're asking, but presumably you're looking at using complex valued numbers (the standard way to represent direction and distance), and the 2-norm for distance.
 
  • #16
Mentallic said:
In my garden, each apple I have is given the value +1 while each orange I have is given the value -1. When you introduce bananas into the problem then it becomes meaningless.
Well, that's an apples to oranges (+ bananas) comparison.:smile:
 
  • #17
phya said:
You do not understand.If we require that the female is positive number,For example +10 man,Male for the negative number,For example -10 woman,So, what is the number of 10 person (neither female nor male )then?
The simplistic system you have set up does not allow for neuter persons.

You have two pieces of information: a sign (+ for women and - for men) and a number. You have not clearly defined what the number represents. Is it how many men or women we're talking about?

If that's the case, then

+4 (or 4) means 4 men
-6 means 6 women
0 means no people

You can't extend this system to include genderless persons.
 
  • #18
phya said:
:wink:

phya: If the distance is only the size, then there being no sign.
Mark44: Sure.
phya: So,Distance should be neither positive nor negative.

This is the correct logic.

Your notions are incorrect. In Euclidean space distances are postive; we simply don't write the + sign because everything is positive by assumption.

In Minkowski space (which is what special relativity's spacetime is), however, it is possible for distances to be negative. Just because we do not have negative distances in Euclidean space does not mean the distances have no sign.
 
  • #19
Mentallic said:
In my garden, each apple I have is given the value +1 while each orange I have is given the value -1. When you introduce bananas into the problem then it becomes meaningless.

The amount of positive and negative numbers are opposite, but Apple's content is contrary to what?
 
  • #20
Mentallic said:
Why are these males and females given the value 10? We used 10 for north because it was 10km north, our unit being the kilometre. What is the unit for the values representing the people?

Three men, +3, three woman, -3,Three people,3.
 
  • #21
phya said:
The amount of positive and negative numbers are opposite, but Apple's content is contrary to what?
Contrary to how you brought neuter people into the equation. Females are positive, males are negative, and that's all you can say. Bringing in neutral people does not make sense in your setup and I gave you another example of such with the apples and oranges.

phya said:
Three men, +3, three woman, -3,Three people,3.
This is like saying 3km north +3, 3km south -3, 3km in either direction (assuming the 3 people are all the same gender because we can't be certain without more information). We would equate this as |x|=3 which means absolute value of x is 3 or in other words x=\pm 3. Now if you try introduce something completely different into this system like neuter people or old people or whatever you want, you need to define what their value is in the system you've shown (i.e. a neutral person can have value 0 and an old female can have value 1/2 etc.)
But this isn't like the north east south example because East is already well defined as a direction perpendicular to the north-south line. This means we need 2 dimensions to describe a point in that plane.
 
  • #22
Basically, it looks like the OP is looking for a nice way to order the elements of \mathbb{R}^2, which AFAIK doesn't have a standard ordering. At the very least, it's certainly not possible to impose an ordering over \mathbb{R}^2 which satisfies the axioms for an ordered field.
 
  • #23
phya said:
The amount of positive and negative numbers are opposite, but Apple's content is contrary to what?
This makes no sense at all.
 
  • #24
phya said:
Three men, +3, three woman, -3,Three people,3.
As already stated, 3 and +3 are considered to be the same number.

You could define an encoding system that used +,-,<blank> together with a number to represent the number of men, women, or neuters, but it would have to be understood by all who used this system that it bears little relation to the way numbers are traditionally represented. In particular, +n \neq n.
 
  • #25
Outflow volume, negative,Volume of inflows, positive,Flow,Flow is only the size.North is negative, the South is positive, the absolute value of only size,absolute value is neither positive nor negative.
 
  • #26
phya said:
Outflow volume, negative,Volume of inflows, positive,Flow,Flow is only the size.North is negative, the South is positive, the absolute value of only size,absolute value is neither positive nor negative.

The absolute value function returns a number that is zero or positive.

E.g., |+5| = +5, |-2| = +2, |0| = 0.
 
  • #27
Absolute mean? Positive and negative is relative, right? Therefore, any number of absolute value is an unsigned number.
 
  • #28
phya said:
Absolute mean? Positive and negative is relative, right? Therefore, any number of absolute value is an unsigned number.

No, positive and negative are not relative. Positive means > 0 and negative means < 0. These are specific definitions. It is a basic property of the real numbers that every number is either > 0, = 0, or < 0. Since the absolute value of a real number is also a real number, this means that |a| > 0, |a| = 0, or |a| < 0. The last case is ruled out by the definition of absolute value, so |a| > 0 or |a| = 0. Therefore, the absolute value of a real number is either positive or zero; it's not unsigned.
 
  • #29
jgens said:
No, positive and negative are not relative. Positive means > 0 and negative means < 0. These are specific definitions. It is a basic property of the real numbers that every number is either > 0, = 0, or < 0. Since the absolute value of a real number is also a real number, this means that |a| > 0, |a| = 0, or |a| < 0. The last case is ruled out by the definition of absolute value, so |a| > 0 or |a| = 0. Therefore, the absolute value of a real number is either positive or zero; it's not unsigned.

Positive and negative are defined relative to the zero.
 
  • #30
phya said:
Positive and negative are defined relative to the zero.

Sure, they are relative to zero, but since the value of zero doesn't change (it's defined to be the additive identity element), they're concrete. Positive and negative have fixed meanings and for a very good purpose.
 
  • #31
For example -1, the volume is 1, the symbol -. Therefore, the symbols and the volume is not the same thing.
 
  • #32
If you define a situation where you count -1 for each litre of water in tank A and 1 for each litre in tank B, then when the water is in tank A it will be -1, but the volume of water is still 1 litre. I don't get why this is bothering you so much...
 
  • #33
phya said:
For example -1, the volume is 1, the symbol -. Therefore, the symbols and the volume is not the same thing.
You keep asserting nonsense. Nosense does not become true, or even 'sense' just because you say so. "1" is a number, whether you think of it as a volume, and area or anything else. "-1" is also a number. To assert that "-" is a symbol without saying what you mean by "symbol" is nonsense. If you mean what is normally meant by "symbol", then, yes, "-" is a symbol, but so is "1" so you are still talking nonsense. Symbols by themselves mean nothing. "-1" and "1" are symbols with specific given meanings- in that sense they are both numbers.
 
  • #34
Mentallic said:
If you define a situation where you count -1 for each litre of water in tank A and 1 for each litre in tank B, then when the water is in tank A it will be -1, but the volume of water is still 1 litre. I don't get why this is bothering you so much...

Suppose we require, the men said with a -1, the woman says with a +1, then the three men, that is, 3 * (-1), the three women is 3 * (+1), may I ask, where the third is positive or negative ? Obviously, the three is not positive, not negative.
 
  • #35
phya said:
Suppose we require, the men said with a -1, the woman says with a +1, then the three men, that is, 3 * (-1), the three women is 3 * (+1), may I ask, where the third is positive or negative ? Obviously, the three is not positive, not negative.
It is apparently not obvious to you, but it's obvious to pretty much everyone else that 3 is positive.

As already stated a couple of other times, 3 and +3 represent the same (positive) number.
 
  • #36
phya said:
Suppose we require, the men said with a -1, the woman says with a +1, then the three men, that is, 3 * (-1), the three women is 3 * (+1), may I ask, where the third is positive or negative ? Obviously, the three is not positive, not negative.

Positive numbers are defined to be real number greater than zero. A person is either female or male, you don't know so you can't determine whether it is 1 or -1, but this doesn't mean that it is neither. If you're talking about a neutral person that has no gender, then your example is too simplistic to accommodate for them, unless of course you define neutral people to be equal to... whatever you want.
 
  • #37
Absolute value of a number we have three answers to choose from, be negative, be positive, be neither positive nor negative. Why do we choose a positive number it? This is not injustice it?
 
  • #38
What does "the number be neutral" mean? Please show me on a number line where this "neutral" 3 lies exactly.
 
  • #39
phya said:
Absolute value of a number we have three answers to choose from, be negative,
-n
phya said:
be positive,
+n
phya said:
the number of neutral
Not neutral - zero.

phya said:
- not positive, not negative. Why do we choose a positive number it? This is not injustice it?
Because x*0 = 0, which is not what we want.
And x*-1=-x, which is not what we want.
But x*+1=x, which is what we want.
 
  • #40
phya is simply talking about scalars versus vectors.

+3 on the number line has a magnitude of 3 and a direction of positive.

Magnitude is always positive. phya thinks of magnitude (which has no directional component) as if it should have no directional sign.
 
  • #41
Mentallic said:
Positive numbers are defined to be real number greater than zero. A person is either female or male, you don't know so you can't determine whether it is 1 or -1, but this doesn't mean that it is neither. If you're talking about a neutral person that has no gender, then your example is too simplistic to accommodate for them, unless of course you define neutral people to be equal to... whatever you want.

For a man or a woman, we can say that a person, while a person is neutral.
 
  • #42
This is the abstract.
 
  • #43
phya said:
For a man or a woman, we can say that a person, while a person is neutral.

OK, so there's you answer.

What exactly was the question again?
 
  • #44
phya said:
Absolute value of a number we have three answers to choose from, be negative, be positive, be neither positive nor negative. Why do we choose a positive number it?
Because that's how the absolute value function is defined -- it evaluates to a nonnegative number. The absolute value function maps
  1. negative numbers to their positive opposites.
  2. zero to zero.
  3. positive numbers to themselves.
phya said:
This is not injustice it?
Justice and injustice are totally irrelevant to the concept of absolute value. Why would you even think of it in these terms?
 
  • #45
DaveC426913 said:
OK, so there's you answer.

What exactly was the question again?

Sorry, I do not understand what you mean. Please note from another perspective.
 
  • #46
Mark44 said:
Because that's how the absolute value function is defined -- it evaluates to a nonnegative number. The absolute value function maps
  1. negative numbers to their positive opposites.
  2. zero to zero.
  3. positive numbers to themselves.

Justice and injustice are totally irrelevant to the concept of absolute value. Why would you even think of it in these terms?

The previous provisions may not be correct.
On justice, the world is interconnected.
Newton's absolute space and time corresponding to the past, and Einstein's space-time corresponds to a relatively modern.

Oh. What is the meaning of absolute space and time? What is the meaning of absolute value?
 
  • #47
phya said:
What is the meaning of absolute value?

Absolute value is a mathematical function defined such that each input produces a non-negative output.
 
  • #48
phya said:
The previous provisions may not be correct.
What previous provisions?
phya said:
On justice, the world is interconnected.
This is a non sequitur that has nothing to do with absolute value.
phya said:
Newton's absolute space and time corresponding to the past, and Einstein's space-time corresponds to a relatively modern.
This is irrelevant to our discussion of absolute value.
phya said:
Oh. What is the meaning of absolute space and time?
This is a topic for a philosophy discussion, maybe.
phya said:
What is the meaning of absolute value?
The absolute value of a real number is its distance from zero. This distance is always nonnegative (i.e., positive or zero).
 
  • #49
Mark44 said:
What previous provisions?
This is a non sequitur that has nothing to do with absolute value.
This is irrelevant to our discussion of absolute value.
This is a topic for a philosophy discussion, maybe.

The absolute value of a real number is its distance from zero. This distance is always nonnegative (i.e., positive or zero).

Oh, why a number of non-negative absolute value of it?
 
  • #50
What is absolute?What is absolute value? Which do not contact?
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

Replies
2
Views
2K
Replies
2
Views
1K
Replies
36
Views
6K
Replies
4
Views
2K
Replies
5
Views
3K
Replies
10
Views
2K
Replies
7
Views
1K
Back
Top