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Lynn, more directly to your question, the distance between two adjacent notes is an interval, and it is the practice to refer to a diatonic scale (think doe-ray-me-fa-so-la-tee-doe) with numbers to represent the notes in that scale so, doe would be a 1, ray would be 2, me would be a 3, etc. It is just a short-handed way of marking the place in the scale. If you start on any note, whether or not it is a 1 in the scale, you can temporarily think of it as a 1 to determine what the next note is in relation to it. So, for example in the key of C Major, the root note would be C (1), and D (2), E (3), F (4), G (5), A (6), B (7), and back to C which is the octave higher root note (1). Let's say you wanted to know the interval from E to G in this scale. Well the fact is the interval from E to G is the same regardless of scale you use. Simply assign 1 to the E and walk up the scale, F would be a 2 from the E and G would be a 3. Now using the C scale again note the the G is the 5 in the C scale but the interval between E and G is a 3 (or a third). Does that make sense to you? I hope so.

Edit- In actuality the E to G is a minor third, but that requires a little more explanation, For our purposes, numerically it is a 3.