Cardinal Lists

Introduction

Sets or groups of things take on a life of their own.  They have an existence which is different than that of their constituent parts but just as real.  The four seasons represents both a set or list of individual seasons and something more.  Here we are collecting these holistic sets which live beyond their members.  We are interested in sets with definite numbers of distinct named members.  We shall call them Cardinal Lists.

The guideline is that each cardinal list must be clearly defined.  The defining rules can be logical, based in physics, historical or cultural.  They have to be widely accepted as unambiguous and not arbitrary.  For example, the member nations of the United Nations forms a group.  However, the membership fluctuates.  Thus to define it clearly a specific date must be given.  To meet the arbitrariness criterion that date must be somehow distinguished relative to the life cycle of the United Nations itself.  The founding membership present at its creation or the ending membership which will be present at its dissolution or destruction would serve well.

There must be a fixed integer number of distinct members in a cardinal list.  Each member or item must exist as a named individual.  Consequently the twelve inches which make up a foot are not qualified to form a cardinal list.  Equally the forty thieves of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves do not form a cardinal list because they are not individually recognized or named.

The notion of cardinality or count of distinct members of a set brings great pleasure.  Simply for this reason cardinality is a central concern in the lists we are compiling.  We do not consider other properties or structures, such as ordering, which sets could have.  The requirement that each member be named or more generally recognized as as individual means that cardinal lists are not quite sets.  A set may have distinct but unnamed proto-individuals without a story of their own.  Cardinal lists of distinct, recognized and named entities organized by cardinality are the crown jewels on display here!

 You can find on the sidebar links which show cardinal sets grouped by their size.  Directly below this paragraph are links leading to introductions of each cardinality with links in turn to cardinal lists of that cardinality.  Enjoy looking around!

Cardinalities

ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX | SEVEN | EIGHT | NINE | TEN | ELEVEN | TWELVE

The Basic Senses

We make our way in the world based on what we know, and our knowledge ultimately arrives via our senses. Traditionally it is said that there are five "classic" senses. Modern day accounts often add more, such as temperature sensitivity or pressure detection. Some people say there is a mysterious "sixth sense" which acts to delivery information in a supernatural way.

Membership List

• Sight
  
• Smell
  
• Touch
  
• Taste
  
• Hearing
  

Back to Five

The Cardinal Directions

The cardinal directions are defined by the rotation of the Planet Earth. The rotational axis defines two poles, points where the axis intersects the globe. Each of these two point does not move but remains stationary as the planet swings around them. North is the direction towards one of these poles, and South is the direction towards the other. East and West are defined as being perpendicular to the lines running North - South. East takes you towards the rising Sun. West takes you towards the direction in which the Sun sets.

Membership List

• North
  
• South
  
• East
  
• West
  

Back to Four

The Seasons

The four seasons mark out the passage of the Sun across the sky. The rotational axis of the Earth is tilted at a 22.5^o angle to the orbital plane. During the Northern hemisphere winter the axis tilts away from the Sun and during the summer towards the Sun. Tilting towards the Sun means the Sun's rays strike directly concentrating in a tight area. When the axis is tilted away, the rays hit obliquely and cover a stretched area, reducing the intensity.

From the point of view of the Earth, the Sun seems to follow a different path across the sky each day as the seasons advance. In the winter the Sun rises late and far to the south, covers a short path across the sky, never reaching the zenith and then sets soon and also far south. In summer the Sun rises early far to the north, rises high in the sky, covers a long path across the heavens and sets late.

Membership List

• Winter
  
• Spring
  
• Summer
  
• Autumn
  

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The Additive Primary Hues

Human beings are trichromats.  The human color vision system is based on three types of cone cells each sensitive to a different range of wavelengths.  This means we have a three dimensional color space.  Physical colors are not actually three dimensional.  Each of the infinitely many possible wavelength is a different physical color.  Humans sense color according to how strongly each of the three cone types responds to incoming light.  Different mixtures of light wavelengths that produce the same activation of the three cones will look the same color to a human, although physically the light is different.  A spectrometer would reveal that the apparently identical colors  were in fact different.

The three primary additive colors are taken to be Red, Green and Blue because the three cone cells have their strongest response in these areas of the wavelength spectrum.

Membership List

• Red
  
• Green
  
• Blue
  

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The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule states:

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you

It is sometimes called the Rule or Principal of Moral Reciprocity. It can also be expressed as a prohibition as well as a commandment, in the form:

Do not do unto others that which you would not have others do unto you.

Back to One

The Biological Sexes

The two biological sexes.  Defined at the chromosomal or genetic level by the presence or absence of a Y chromosome. A Y results in a male, absence of a Y in a female.  Thus males have XY sex chromosomes while females have XX sex chromosomes.

Note that biological sex is distinct from cultural gender.

Membership List

• Female (XX)
  
• Male (XY)
  

Back to Two

Hearing

Hearing is provided by the ears. It is based on the detection of sound waves.

Back to The Basic Senses