Clarification needed

[perusal]

I am a little confused about the following notation.

If z is a natural number, what is z'? There is an apostrophe next to the z if you can't see it.

I am assuming it is some natural number that is not z. So, for example, if z = 3 then z' does not equal 3 but it could be any other natural number.

Am I wrong?

 

[Deleted member 4993]

I am a little confused about the following notation.

If z is a natural number, what is z'? There is an apostrophe next to the z if you can't see it.

I am assuming it is some natural number that is not z. So, for example, if z = 3 then z' does not equal 3 but it could be any other natural number.

Am I wrong?

Different authors use different conventions. Please send us a reference where you found z and z' - then we can decipher this code!

 

[Dr.Peterson]

I am a little confused about the following notation.

If z is a natural number, what is z'? There is an apostrophe next to the z if you can't see it.

I am assuming it is some natural number that is not z. So, for example, if z = 3 then z' does not equal 3 but it could be any other natural number.

Am I wrong?

Very likely your source has just defined the notation, and you missed it. It may be a notation just for use within a particular theorem, or chapter, or book. One example I've seen that could fit your example is to use z' (read as z prime) for the "successor" in a development of the natural numbers from set theory. (This isn't the usual notation, though.) None of the uses listed here seem to apply.

The other possibility is that you're right, and it just means "some other integer", more or less equivalent to using subscripts. If so, though, they would say so explicitly.

What we need is the context. Show us (a) what book or other source it is from, (b) what topic is being covered where you saw this, (c) what is said the first time the notation is used, and (d) the entire paragraph you are looking at.