definition of si'e

[guskant]

The definition of si'e is inconsistent with its usage. According to
the Complete Lojban Language Chapter 18 (and also to jbovlaste), si'e
is defined as:
x1 is an (n)th portion of mass x2.
The example shows however that si'e itself does not imply fi'u (an (n)th):
11.8) levi sanmi cu fi'ucisi'e lei mi djedi cidja
This-here meal is-a-slash-three-portion-of my day-food.
This meal is one-third of my daily food.
Guessing from the example, the definition of si'e must be:
x1 is n times portion of mass x2.
n is a positive real number or 0, or may be simply a real number. I
can't imagine the case that n is a complex number, but it might be
mathematically possible.

[Pierre Abbat]

Sounds good to me. You may want to add a note that, normally, n is 0
ga'obi'iga'o 1.

Pierre

--
ve ka'a ro klaji la .romas. se jmaji

[Michael Turniansky]

    What you are seeing here is an artifact of English.  "nth" here is used not in the ordinal sense (first, second, third, etc.), but in the sense of a fraction (think of three fifTHS, eleven twelfTHs, etc.)

                        --gejyspa

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[Jonathan Jones]

That's what he's talking about. In the example, the "third" is not due to si'e, but to fi'u.

--
mu'o mi'e .aionys.

.i.e'ucai ko cmima lo pilno be denpa bu .i doi.luk. mi patfu do zo'o
(Come to the Dot Side! Luke, I am your father. :D )

[Michael Turniansky]

    Yeah, I realized that afterwards.

[guskant]

I'm not sure if we really need to limit the range of n to 0 ga'obi'iga'o 1.
According to http://www.lojban.org/tiki/BPFK+Section%3A+Numeric+selbri
we have five menbers of MOI: moi, mei, si'e, cu'o and va'e.

x1 number moi x2 x3 x1 me x2 gi'e lidne da'a number me x2 x3
x1 number mei x2 x1 me x2 gi'e klani li number lo se gradu be x2
x1 number si'e x2 x1 pagbu x2 gi'e klani li number lo se gradu be x2
x1 number cu'o x2 x1 se pacna zi'o li number va'o x2
x1 number va'e x2 x1 se merli zi'o li number x2

Besides si'e, no other menber of MOI signifies a quantity n relative
to another quantity of the same material. There is ce'i that has a
similar meaning, but it is a member of PA3 and does not form a selbri.

On this condition, it would be better not to limit the range of n for
the capability of the language. With no limit, we could say, for
example:

I vomit all I ate yesterday:
levi sanmi cu ni'upasi'e lei mi djedi cidja
(This meal is -1 times of my daily food.)

I eat too much, or I cannot eat so much:
levi sanmi cu musi'e lei mi djedi cidja
(This meal is five times of my daily food.)

On the left side of the time-dependent Schroedinger equation, the
partial derivative of the wave function psi with respect to time t is
multiplied by "i times portion of Planck constant h-bar":
le vi stodi cu ka'osi'e le la plank. stodi
(This constant is i times of h-bar.)

[guskant]

Supplementary explanations:

1. (i*h-bar) is regarded as a "portion" because Planck constant is a
quantity, which has dimensionality (mass)*((length)^2)*((time)^(-1)).

2. My English translations of these examples are bad. I would like to
say "This meal is -1 times portion of my daily food," "This meal is
five times portion of my daily food," "This constant is i times
portion of h-bar," but I doubt whether the English word "portion" is
suitable for these expressions. It is only the problem of the signifié
of the word "portion", or "pagbu". I wish, for the capability of the
language, the word "pagbu" could be interpreted vastly enough to
include the complex number of quantity, otherwise the definition of
"x1 number si'e x2" were "x1 mintu x2 gi'e klani li number lo se gradu
be x2".