Question

While this question may be related to philosophy or occur in a philosophical context, the question itself doesn't seem to be about philosophy, and is therefore not a good fit for our site.

Closed 10 months ago.

We have language where we derive a name that can denote contextually, but then use it in ways that makes no sense for the objects being discussed.

For example: 'The number of people in the room is five' let's say that people are entering and leaving the room.

The next minute we might say 'The number of people in the room is four'.

It is a fact that 'the number of people in the room' denotes some natural number at any instant.

Yet why do we hear statements like 'the number of people in the room is changing'

No matter what statement, a natural number does not change it is but itself.

Say for example that 'The number of people in the room is seven' is a true statement, then 'The number of people in the room is changing' is equivalent to 'seven is changing' which is meaningless.

Why can we use this? It is often done in other situations like physics and engineering where 'the water level' both denotes a inanimate mathematical object and also is described as 'changing'

Answer 1

In the phrase 'The number of people in the room is changing', we are referring to a variable that represents a quantity at any given time, which can take different numerical values.

Step-by-step explanation:

The statement 'The number of people in the room is changing' is used to describe a dynamic situation rather than the properties of the numbers themselves. The natural numbers, such as five or seven, are indeed fixed entities in mathematics. However, when we describe situations in the real world, we are actually talking about a variable or function, e.g., the function 'the number of people in a room over time'. This function can take on different values: one moment it may be five, and the next moment, it may be four. But the numbers themselves do not change; rather, the value of the variable representing the number of people changes.

Mathematics, language, and their uses in concepts like counting are consistent across various cultures and periods. This universality allows us to communicate about quantities and changes irrespective of the context. Understanding the distinction between the unchanging nature of numbers and the changing quantities they can represent helps in various fields, such as physics, engineering, and everyday language, to convey information efficiently and accurately.