Quantity

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.

Quantity in physical science

Establishing quantitative structure and relationships between different quantities is the cornerstone of modern physical sciences.
Physics is fundamentally a quantitative science. Its progress is chiefly achieved due to rendering the abstract qualities of material
entities into physical quantities, by postulating that all material bodies marked by quantitative properties or physical dimensions are
subject to some measurements and observations. Setting the units of measurement, physics covers such fundamental quantities as
space (length, breadth, and depth) and time, mass and force, temperature, ener
gy, and quantum.

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.

Quantity in natural language

In human languages, including English, number is a syntactic category, along with person and gender. The quantity is expressed by
identifiers, definite and indefinite, and quantifiers, definite and indefinite, as well as by three types of nouns: 1. count unit nouns or
countables; 2. mass nouns, uncountables, referring to the indefinite, unidentified amounts; 3. nouns of multitude (collective nouns).
The word number belongs to a noun of multitude standing either for a single entity or for the individuals making the whole. An
amount in general is expressed by a special class of words called identifiers, indefinite and definite and quantifiers, definite and
indefinite. The amount may be expressed by: singular form and plural from, ordinal numbers before a count noun singular (first,
second, third...), the demonstratives; definite and indefinite numbers and measurements (hundred/hundreds, million/millions), or
cardinal numbers before count nouns. The set of language quantifiers covers "a few, a great number, many, several (for count names);
a bit of, a little, less, a great deal (amount) of, much (for mass names); all, plenty of, a lot of, enough, more, most, some, any, both,
each, either, neither, every, no". For the complex case of unidentified amounts, the parts and examples of a mass are indicated with
respect to the following: a measure of a mass (two kilos of rice and twenty bottles of milk or ten pieces of paper); a piece or part of a
mass (part, element, atom, item, article, drop); or a shape of a container (a basket, box, case, cup, bottle, vessel, jar).

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 one.
quite a few also refers to an indefinite, but surprisingly (in relation to the context) large number
.
several refers to an indefinite, but usually small, number - usually indefinitely greater than "a few".
OPEC has a few members
See also
Dimensionless quantity
Quantification (science)
Observable quantity

References
1. J. Franklin, An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics
, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2014, pp. 31-2.

Aristotle, Logic (Organon): Categories, in Great Books of the W

estern World, V.1. ed. by Adler, M.J., Encyclopdia
Britannica, Inc., Chicago (1990)
Aristotle, Physical Treatises: Physics, in Great Books of the Western World, V.1, ed. by Adler, M.J., Encyclopdia
Britannica, Inc., Chicago (1990)
Aristotle, Metaphysics, in Great Books of the W
estern World, V.1, ed. by Adler, M.J., Encyclopdia 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.
Laycock, H. (2006). Words without Objects: Oxford, Clarendon Press.Oxfordscholarship.com
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).

External links
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