Re: [uom-ontology-std] What is mass?

[Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>]

On Sep 30, 2009, at 11:11 AM, Duane Nickull wrote:

On 9/30/09 9:02 AM, "Joe Collins" <joseph.collins@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>> > 1 m = 1.00 m : true or false?
>>
>> is false

Additionally, from a programming perspective, they are not equal as there are more bits used in the latter.

Again, that is about the numerals (considered as data structures) rather than the numbers they denote. Some strongly typed programming languages require *in their semantics* that real numbers are disjoint from integers, however. This was a major sticking point between the RDF and XML Schema specifications, by the way: RDF required a simple denotational semantics, while XSD datatyping assumes a strict typing model. We are still suffering from the toxic effects of this particular clash of intuitions, with a distinction between 'equal' and 'identical' now haunting the semantic Web.

Pat

 I guess the question depends upon the context in which you ask it.

Duane

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