The number five can be written $5$, $\text{V}$, “five”, cinco, $101$ in base two or with five tally marks in a notebook. The scripts change; the number stays the same. Nothing surprising so far. The surprise comes when you ask: so where is the number five, then? Not on the paper, because the paper only has the scripts. Not in a collection of five apples, because apples have colour, weight and smell, and the number has none of that. Nobody has ever seen, or ever will see, the number five “in person”. We only see its representations.