Meaning of oblong number | Babel Free

Definitions

rectangular number

Examples

“If, however, the sides differ⟳ otherwise than by 1, for instance, by 2, 3, 4 or succeeding numbers, as in 2 times 4, 3 times 6, 4 times 8, or however else they may differ⟳, then no longer will such a number⟳ be properly called a heteromecic, but an oblong number⟳. For the ancients of the school of Pythagoras and his successors saw⟳ “the other”³ and “otherness” primarily in 2, and “the same” and “sameness” in 1, as the two beginnings of all things, and these two are found to differ⟳ from each other only by 1. Thus “the other” is fundamentally “other” by 1, and by no other number⟳, and for this reason⟳ customarily “other” is used, among those two speak⟳ correctly, of two things and not of more than two.”

CEFR level