Meanings of 正

Soul_Reaver Member

Registered: 2013-03-10 Posts: 10

Hi,
recently I discovered that some kanji have very strange mathematical meanings.
For example 正 also means 10^40 and this meaning is even listed first in the dictionary I use. I've also seen another kanji from a previous RTK frame meaning 10^44.

Well, I'm a little bit confused why there are kanji with such a meaning. Those numbers are ridiculously big and I honestly can't think of a usage of those kanji as numbers.

So my questions are: Where do those meanings come from? Where are they used? Are there more of those?

Edit: Damn, wrong section. Sorry.

Last edited by Soul_Reaver (2013 March 10, 2:32 pm)

Stian Member

From: England Registered: 2012-06-21 Posts: 426

You could safely ignore those meanings and focus on the rtk keyword if you're still on the rtk stage.

I can imagine that such numbers might be used in some natural sciences. Just googled a little and found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_E%2B40_m%C2%B3

SendaiDan Member

From: Australia Registered: 2009-08-24 Posts: 201 Website

Given that arabic numerals (0-9) didn't exist in China/Japan until the influence of the West arrived, they used kanji to express mathematical values. Similar to how we wouldn't right all the digits out, we abbreviate it to 10^40, I assume kanji would have been used in a similar way - instead of writing lots of kanji that add up to 10^40 they just chose one kanji to represent that numerical value.

I can't see how such a large number would actually be useful but nevertheless...

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