Firstly let me start off with a definition of what is a natural number. Definitions tend to help significantly with the understanding of a topic. A natural number can either be an element of the set {1, 2, 3, ...}, which is also known as positive integers, or an element of the same set starting from zero, which is also known as non-negative integers. The first is generally used in number theory and the other is generally used in mathematical logic, set theory and computer science.

So now that natural numbers has been defined, we have to ask: "What are they used for?". Natural numbers have two main uses, which include counting and they can be used for ordering (especially size ordering), for example "naming a city the 3rd largest city in the country". I hope this little article would assist your understanding of natural numbers.

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