Every number, expressible and inexpressible sits upon a template for organizing the numberness of the number. We call this template a base. The base of a number is a power series which escalates to infinity in one dimension, (it's post decimal dimension), and toward zero in the other pre-decimal dimension.
Here we have a vector going in either direction, toward infinity, and toward zero. For instance, base 10 mathematics uses 10 as its base and thus everything is power of 10. Behold:
116,651 = 1*10^5 + 1*10^4 + 6*10^3 + 6*10^2 + 5*10^1 + 1*10^0
Now if we wanted to add .1234 to this number our power series would extend like so:
1*10^-1 + 2*10^-2 + 3*10^-3 + 4*10^-4.
Now, when we represent the number, we only consider the segment between the highest and the lowest place value, where 1^10^0 would always be considered the origin of both vectors. So, when you are seeing a number, you are always only seeing part of an infinite series which is lit up between extremes.
~~~
Now in Base-2, or Binary, the same rules hold true as in base 10, except that everything is a power of 2.
So instead of the chain extending like this:
1,10,100,1000,10000 ...
It extends like this:
1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048 ...
&
.5, .25, .125., .0625, ...
~~~
Our Base 10 system of representations is not without its paradoxes. Behold:
1/3 = .333333...
1/3 = .333333...
1/3 = .333333...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3/3 = .999999... = 1
In such an instance the bare bones of our structure to contain the Number is laid bare, extending infinitely toward 9*10^-INF which is also Zero. So, even with an eternity to work with, we can never finish the task of writing this number.
~~~
What is the Point?
Well, just that the number seems to be describing the relationship of one thing to another in a very specific sequence, where the sequence conveys a large part of what the representation refers to.
Suffice it to say, when we introduce the concept of number it's a how much/how many indication. Each number occupies one infinitessimal point on a line known as the "real number line". The end points (which do not fall on the line) are INFINITY and -INFINITY.
The number is a point. A geometric object which describes itself only in relation to other objects and as part of some system.
Really, an odd thing to contemplate.
*Scratches head*
I will drink more coffee.
Computer poetry is warfare carried out by other means, a warfare against conventionality and language that has become automatized. Strange as it seems, our finite state automata have become the poet’s allies in this struggle, the long historical battle by which mankind pries into the surface of language to reveal its latent mysteries… R.W. Bailey, Computer Poems (1973)
Saturday, November 6, 2010
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