• To: "Roger L. Costello" <costello@m...>
• Subject: Re: What are units-of-measure? e.g., what's a "kilometer"?
• From: John Cowan <cowan@m...>
• Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 08:07:44 -0400
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <3F1680EC.1683F3EC@m...>
• References: <3F1680EC.1683F3EC@m...>
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Roger L. Costello scripsit:

> 2. Is kilometer a function? e.g., kilometer(Yangtze) --> 6300
>    In general: kilometer(physical object) --> number
>    "The kilometer function maps a physical object to a number."

I think this view is the most nearly correct, but it needs amplification:
it doesn't capture that it's the *length* (rather than, say, the
average depth) of the Yangzi that is 6300 km.  So we can rewrite it
in terms of relations as follows:

Yangzi length X
X kilometer 6300

where "kilometer" is a relation that maps a length (an abstract property
of a physical object) into a pure number.

-- 
Where the wombat has walked,            John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
it will inevitably walk again.          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan

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