Quantity
Quantity is a property that can exist as a magnitude or multitude. Quantities can be compared in terms of "more", "less" or "equal", or by assigning a numerical value in terms of a unit of measurement. Quantity is among the basic classes of things along with quality, substance, change, and relation. Being a fundamental term, quantity is used to refer to any type of quantitative properties or attributes of things. Some quantities are such by their inner nature (as number), while others are functioning as states (properties, dimensions, attributes) of things such as heavy and light, long and short, broad and narrow, small and great, or much and little. A small quantity is sometimes referred to as a quantulum. Two basic divisions of quantity, magnitude and multitude, imply the principal distinction between continuity (continuum) and discontinuity. Under the names of multitude come what is discontinuous and discrete and divisible into indivisibles, all cases of collective nouns: army, fleet, flock, government, company, party, people, chorus, crowd, mess, and number. Under the names of magnitude come what is continuous and unified and divisible into divisibles, all cases of non-collective nouns: the universe, matter, mass, energy, liquid, material, animal, plant, tree. Along with analyzing its nature and classification, the issues of quantity involve such closely related topics as the relation of magnitudes and multitudes, dimensionality, equality, proportion, the measurements of quantities, the units of measurements, number and numbering systems, the types of numbers and their relations to each other as numerical ratios. Thus quantity is a property that exists in a range of magnitudes or multitudes. Mass, time, distance, heat, and angular separation are among the familiar examples of quantitative properties. Two magnitudes of a continuous quantity stand in relation to one another as a ratio, which is a real number.
Background
In Mathematics the concept of quantity is an ancient one extending back to the time of Aristotle and earlier. Aristotle regarded quantity as a fundamental ontological and scientific category. In Aristotle's ontology, quantity or quantum was classified into two different types, which he characterized as follows: 'Quantum' means that which is divisible into two or more constituent parts, of which each is by nature a 'one' and a 'this'. A quantum is a plurality if it is numerable, a magnitude if it is measurable. 'Plurality' means that which is divisible potentially into non-continuous parts, magnitude that which is divisible into continuous parts; of magnitude, that which is continuous in one dimension is length; in two breadth, in three depth. Of these, limited plurality is number, limited length is a line, breadth a surface, depth a solid. (Aristotle, book v, chapters 11-14, Metaphysics). In his Elements, Euclid developed the theory of ratios of magnitudes without studying the nature of magnitudes, as Archimedes, but giving the following significant definitions: A magnitude is a part of a magnitude, the less of the greater, when it measures the greater; A ratio is a sort of relation in respect of size between two magnitudes of the same kind. For Aristotle and Euclid, relations were conceived as whole numbers (Michell, 1993). John Wallis later conceived of ratios of magnitudes as real numbers as reflected in the following: When a comparison in terms of ratio is made, the resultant ratio often [namely with the exception of the 'numerical genus' itself] leaves the genus of quantities compared, and passes into the numerical genus, whatever the genus of quantities compared may have been. (John Wallis, Mathesis Universalis) That is, the ratio of magnitudes of any quantity, whether volume, mass, heat and so on, is a number. Following this, Newton then defined number, and the relationship between quantity and number, in the following terms: "By number
Quantity we understand not so much a multitude of unities, as the abstracted ratio of any quantity to another quantity of the same kind, which we take for unity" (Newton, 1728).
Quantitative structure
Continuous quantities possess a particular structure that was first explicitly characterized by Hlder (1901) as a set of axioms that define such features as identities and relations between magnitudes. In science, quantitative structure is the subject of empirical investigation and cannot be assumed to exist a priori for any given property. The linear continuum represents the prototype of continuous quantitative structure as characterized by Hlder (1901) (translated in Michell & Ernst, 1996). A fundamental feature of any type of quantity is that the relationships of equality or inequality can in principle be stated in comparisons between particular magnitudes, unlike quality, which is marked by likeness, similarity and difference, diversity. Another fundamental feature is additivity. Additivity may involve concatenation, such as adding two lengths A and B to obtain a third A + B. Additivity is not, however, restricted to extensive quantities but may also entail relations between magnitudes that can be established through experiments that permit tests of hypothesized observable manifestations of the additive relations of magnitudes. Another feature is continuity, on which Michell (1999, p.51) says of length, as a type of quantitative attribute, "what continuity means is that if any arbitrary length, a, is selected as a unit, then for every positive real number, r, there is a length b such that b = ra".
Quantity in mathematics
Magnitude and multitude, the two principal types of quantities, are further divided as mathematical and physical. In formal terms, quantitiestheir ratios, proportions, order and formal relationships of equality and inequalityare studied by mathematics. The essential part of mathematical quantities consists of having a collection of variables, each assuming a set of values. These can be a set of a single quantity, referred to as a scalar when represented by real numbers, or have multiple quantities as do vectors and tensors, two kinds of geometric objects. The mathematical usage of a quantity can then be varied and so is situationally dependent. Quantities can be used as being infinitesimal, arguments of a function, variables in an expression (independent or dependent), or probabilistic as in random and stochastic quantities. In mathematics, magnitudes and multitudes are also not only two distinct kinds of quantity but furthermore relatable to each other. Number theory covers the topics of the discrete quantities as numbers: number systems with their kinds and relations. Geometry studies the issues of spatial magnitudes: straight lines, curved lines, surfaces and solids, all with their respective measurements and relationships.
Quantity
Further examples
Some further examples of quantities are: 1.76 litres (liters) of milk, a continuous quantity 2r metres, where r is the length of a radius of a circle expressed in metres (or meters), also a continuous quantity one apple, two apples, three apples, where the number is an integer representing the count of a denumerable collection of objects (apples) 500 people (also a count) a couple conventionally refers to two objects a few usually refers to an indefinite, but usually small, number greater than two. several refers to an indefinite, but usually small, number - usually indefinitely greater than "a few".
References
Aristotle, Logic (Organon): Categories, in Great Books of the Western World, V.1. ed. by Adler, M.J., Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Chicago (1990) Aristotle, Physical Treatises: Physics, in Great Books of the Western World, V.1, ed. by Adler, M.J., Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Chicago (1990) Aristotle, Metaphysics, in Great Books of the Western World, V.1, ed. by Adler, M.J., Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Chicago (1990) Hlder, O. (1901). Die Axiome der Quantitt und die Lehre vom Mass. Berichte ber die Verhandlungen der Kniglich Sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Mathematische-Physicke Klasse, 53, 1-64. Klein, J. (1968). Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra. Cambridge. Mass: MIT Press.
Quantity Laycock, H. (2006). Words without Objects: Oxford, Clarendon Press. Oxfordscholarship.com [1] Michell, J. (1993). The origins of the representational theory of measurement: Helmholtz, Hlder, and Russell. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 24, 185-206. Michell, J. (1999). Measurement in Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Michell, J. & Ernst, C. (1996). The axioms of quantity and the theory of measurement: translated from Part I of Otto Hlders German text "Die Axiome der Quantitt und die Lehre vom Mass". Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 40, 235-252. Newton, I. (1728/1967). Universal Arithmetic: Or, a Treatise of Arithmetical Composition and Resolution. In D.T. Whiteside (Ed.), The mathematical Works of Isaac Newton, Vol. 2 (pp.3134). New York: Johnson Reprint Corp. Wallis, J. Mathesis universalis (as quoted in Klein, 1968).
References
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