What is the difference between integers, wholes, and naturals?

Question

definitions of them will work too.

Answer 1

natural numbers: The counting numbers, (1,2,3,4,5...)
whole numbers: The set of numbers that includes zero and all of the natural numbers (0,1,2,3....)
integers: The set of numbers containing zero, the natural numbers, and all the negatives of the natural numbers. (...-2,-1,0,1,2...)

Answer 2

Check on the history of the zero and you might be surprised how 'unnatural' it is. Thus, the Natural numbers set [usually?] does not contain it. This helps me to remember the difference between whole and natural numbers.
Another way to look at it is in language. It is natural for us to say 'There is no apple in the basket,' then to say 'There is zero apple in the basket.'

ps: understand the english meanings of names used in the topics of mathematics and sciences do help.

Answer 3

integers are any numbers, positive (1,2,3), negative (-1,-2,-3) or zero.
wholes and naturals are the same thing zero or any positive number 0 to infinity. i used wikipedia dictionary

Answer 4

natural numbers are just Ordinary counting numbers (without 0, of course)
{1,2,3,4...}

whole numbers are those that indicate wholes
{0,1,2,3,4...}

integers are whole numbers together with their inverses(i.e. negative numbers)
{...-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3...}


For clarification, natural numbers are part of the whole numbers, and also the integers. In addition, whole numbers are part of the integers.

^_^

Answer 5

In number theory a natural number is {1,2,3 etc}.
Whole numbers include the 0 {0,1,2,3,4 etc}
Integers include the negatives (...,-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3,...}