At 08:09 AM 10/17/03 -0600, Steven Montgomery wrote:Can one of you mathematical types out there explain the mathematical terms, "positional" and "juxtapositional" to me? The quote comes from an article entitled, "Doing Business in Babylon," as found in the latest BYU magazine (See it online at: http://magazine.byu.edu/article.tpl?num=44-Fa03). Here is the quote:
<Quote>
Babylon seems to be the only civilization in ancient times that used a positional system, where the value of a number was determined by its position and not its juxtaposition. Even the Roman system is juxtapositional.
</Quote>
I can't get the page to come up, but here's a quick answer:
In our system, the value of a number is determined by its position, as "1", "10", "100", "1000" all represent different values, depending on the position of the "1" relative to the (understood) decimal point.
In Roman numerals, "I" always represents "1", "V" always represents "5", etc. One could conceivably put the letters that make up the representation of a particular number in Roman numerals in almost any order, so "position" is not important, except combinations like for "IV" for "4", IX" for "9", "XL" for "40", etc., where the juxtaposition of a smaller numeral to the left represents a decrement of the numeral on the right.
Clear as mud?
-- Ronn! :)
Ok, it's a little hazy but I think I've got it <grin>.
-- Steven Montgomery [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Who was Joseph Smith? The Book of Mormon tells us he was of the seed of Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and hence he was selected as Abraham was to fulfil a work upon the earth. God chose this young man. He was ignorant of letters as the world has it, but the most profoundly learned and intelligent man that I ever met in my life, and I have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, been on different continents and mingled among all classes and creeds of people, yet I have never met a man so intelligent as he was. And where did he get his intelligence from? Not from books, not from the logic or science or philosophy of the day, but he obtained it through the revelation of God made known to him through the medium of the everlasting gospel.—John Taylor
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aaP9AU.bWix1n.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html --^----------------------------------------------------------------
