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Quantity is a property that can exist as a multitude or magnitude. 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. 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 aquantulum.
Two basic divisions of quantity, magnitude and multitude, imply the principal distinction between continuity (continuum) and
discontinuity.
Under the name 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 name of magnitude come what is
continuous and unified and divisible into divisibles, all cases of non-collective nouns:
matter, mass, energy, liquid, material.
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 ofquantitative properties. Two magnitudes of a continuous quantity stand in relation to one another as a
ratio which is a real number.
Contents
1 Background
2 Quantitative structure
3 Quantity in mathematics
4 Quantity in physical science
5 Quantity in natural language
6 Further examples
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
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 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". A further
generalization is given by the theory of conjoint measurement, independently developed by French economist Grard Debreu (1960)
and by the American mathematical psychologistR. Duncan Luce and statistician John Tukey (1964).
Quantity in mathematics
Magnitude (how much) and multitude (how many), 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.
A traditional philosophy of mathematics, stemming from Aristotle and remaining popular until the eighteenth century, held that
mathematics is the "science of quantity". Quantity was considered to be divided into the discrete (studied by arithmetic) and the
continuous (studied by geometry and later calculus). The theory fits reasonably well elementary or school mathematics but less well
[1]
the abstract topological and algebraic structures of modern mathematics.
A distinction has also been made between intensive quantity and extensive quantity as two types of quantitative property, state or
relation. The magnitude of an intensive quantity does not depend on the size, or extent, of the object or system of which the quantity
is a property, whereas magnitudes of an extensive quantity are additive for parts of an entity or subsystems. Thus, magnitude does
depend on the extent of the entity or system in the case of extensive quantity. Examples of intensive quantities are density and
pressure, while examples of extensive quantities areenergy, volume, and mass.
Further examples
Some further examples of quantities are:
References
1. J. Franklin, An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics
, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2014, pp. 31-2.
External links
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