Expressing mathematical relationships in an ontology? from Roger L. Costello on 2003-06-13 (www-rdf-interest@w3.org from June 2003)

From: Roger L. Costello <costello@mitre.org>
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 06:14:52 -0400
To: www-rdf-interest@w3.org
CC: "Costello,Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
Message-ID: <3EE9A41C.39320C49@mitre.org>

Hi Folks,

OWL is very good at expressing these relationships:
  
   - property A is synonymous with property B 
     (using owl:equivalentProperty)
   - class X is equivalent to class Y
     (using owl:equivalentClass)
   - class M is a type of class N
     (using rdfs:subClassOf)
   and so forth.

These are all "object relationships".

But suppose that I want to express a mathematical relationship.  For
example, consider these two instances:

Instance 1:

   <Distance>
      <rdf:value>2.54</rdf:value>
      <units>centimeters</units>
   </Distance>

Instance 2:

   <Distance>
      <rdf:value>1.0</rdf:value>
      <units>inches</units>
   </Distance>

It would be nice if this mathematical relationship could be
declaratively expressed:

    2.54 centimeters = 1.0 inches

What is the recommended practice for expressing such mathematical
relationships?  I don't want to hardcode them in my application.

Is RuleML intended to express such things?  /Roger

Received on Friday, 13 June 2003 06:16:08 UTC