In the section of natural numbers, you will also encounter Cardinal Numbers. Cardinal numbers are also natural numbers but then what is the difference? Cardinal numbers measure the size of the sets. We call those sets cardinality of sets. It means a finite set of natural numbers which are placed according to their order.

The question is how cardinal numbers are helpful and why mathematicians found this important? Cardinal numbers help us to count a set of objects. For example, fifteen pencils, twenty-five coins, three pounds, three hundred and forty-five dollars, etc. It tells the quantity of specific things. Suppose you have two thousand and twenty-one pencils. Two thousand and twenty-one is referring to the quantity of pencils. That is why cardinal numbers are important. It doesn't show the order of the specific thing such as the second pencil is a blue pencil, etc.

Furthermore, like natural numbers, cardinal numbers cannot be in decimals or fractions. Speaking of fraction and decimal, you might be wondering can cardinal numbers be negative numbers? The answer is no because natural numbers follow counting numbers. All non-negative numbers are called counting numbers and since the cardinal number is a part of the natural number therefore we can conclude that cardinal numbers can't be a negative number, decimal, or a fraction. Last but not least, zero is also not a cardinal number because zero has no quantity and cardinal numbers define the quantity of the numbers.

1   one 11   eleven 10  ten 100   one hundred
2   two 12   twelve 20   twenty 200   two hundred
3   three 13   thirteen 30   thirty 300   three hundred
4   four 14   fourteen 40   forty 400   four hundred
5   five 15   fifteen 50   fifty 500   five hundred
6   six 16   sixteen 60   sixty 600   six hundred
7   seven 17   seventeen 70   seventy 700   seven hundred
8   eight 18   eighteen 80   eighty 800   eight hundred
9   nine 19   nineteen 90   ninety 900   nine hundred
1,000  one thousand 10,000  ten thousand 100,000  one hundred thousand 1,000,000  one million
USA Germany, Spain, France, ...
1,000,000,000 billion thousand million (milliard)
1,000,000,000,000 trillion billion
1,000,000,000,000,000 quadrillion thousand billion (billiard)
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 quintillion trillion

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Emma

Emma

I am passionate about travelling and currently live and work in Paris. I like to spend my time reading, gardening, running, learning languages and exploring new places.