About

A natural number <math>\mathbb{N} </math> can be used for two purposes:

  • to count (ie describe the size of a set)
  • to order (ie or to describe the position of an element in a sequence).
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ... or 1, 2, 3, 4, 

The natural numbers are those used for:

Operation Example Words
counting there are six coins on the table cardinal numbers
ranking this is the third largest city in the country ordinal numbers

Number systems

N is a number system.

where:

Representation

Symbol

In the base 10 numeral system, the symbols for natural numbers are written using ten digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Class

In set theory, natural numbers can be represented by classes of equivalent sets. For instance, the number 3 can be represented as the class of all sets that have exactly three elements.

Documentation / Reference