This document defines and describes various sets of numbers:
- Natural numbers are counting numbers like 1, 2, 3.
- Whole numbers are natural numbers plus 0.
- Integers add negative numbers.
- Rational numbers are fractions.
- Irrational numbers cannot be written as fractions, like π.
- Real numbers include all rational and irrational numbers and can be placed on a number line. Basic arithmetic operations can be performed on real numbers.
This document defines and describes various sets of numbers:
- Natural numbers are counting numbers like 1, 2, 3.
- Whole numbers are natural numbers plus 0.
- Integers add negative numbers.
- Rational numbers are fractions.
- Irrational numbers cannot be written as fractions, like π.
- Real numbers include all rational and irrational numbers and can be placed on a number line. Basic arithmetic operations can be performed on real numbers.
This document defines and describes various sets of numbers:
- Natural numbers are counting numbers like 1, 2, 3.
- Whole numbers are natural numbers plus 0.
- Integers add negative numbers.
- Rational numbers are fractions.
- Irrational numbers cannot be written as fractions, like π.
- Real numbers include all rational and irrational numbers and can be placed on a number line. Basic arithmetic operations can be performed on real numbers.
This document defines and describes various sets of numbers:
- Natural numbers are counting numbers like 1, 2, 3.
- Whole numbers are natural numbers plus 0.
- Integers add negative numbers.
- Rational numbers are fractions.
- Irrational numbers cannot be written as fractions, like π.
- Real numbers include all rational and irrational numbers and can be placed on a number line. Basic arithmetic operations can be performed on real numbers.
✓ Carry out elementary operations on real numbers ✓ Use the properties of real numbers Numbers that are used for counting things or objects, that is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,… are called natural numbers. The set of natural numbers, denoted by ℕ, can thus be expressed as
ℕ = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … Natural numbers together with 0 form the set of whole numbers, denoted by 𝑊
𝑊 = 0,1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … The set of integers, ℤ, consists of natural numbers, zero and the negative of natural numbers
ℤ = … , −3, −2, 0,1, 2, 3, …
Fractions are numbers that can be written in the form
𝑝 𝑞 The set of numbers that can be written in this form where 𝑝 and 𝑞 are integers with 𝑞 ≠ 0 are called rational numbers, ℚ
𝑝 + ℚ = 𝑥: 𝑥 = , 𝑝 ∈ ℤ, 𝑞 ∈ ℤ 𝑞 The decimal representations of rational numbers are repeating or terminating.
Example: 3 = 0.6 (terminating) 5 1 (‘6’ is repeating and can be written as 0. 1ሶ 6)ሶ = 0.1666 6 Numbers that cannot be written as fractions and whose decimals neither terminate nor recur are called irrational numbers and are denoted by ℚ′ or ℚഥ
Example: 5 = 2.360697 … and 𝜋 = 3.141592654 … All rational and irrational numbers constitute the set of real numbers, ℝ. The set of positive real numbers is denoted by ℝ+ = 𝑥: 𝑥 ∈ ℝ, 𝑥 > 0 and vice versa Real Numbers, ℝ
Rational Numbers, ℚ ഥ Irrational Numbers, ℚ
Integers, ℤ Fractions
Whole Numbers, 𝑊
Natural Numbers, ℕ Real numbers can be represented on a straight line, called the real number line. Origin negative direction positive direction
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
Note: 1. Every point on the line represent one real number 2. Every real number is represented by precisely one point Two real numbers can be combined by using the operations addition (+), subtraction (−), multiplication (×) and division (÷)
The result is also a real number
Closure Property
For real numbers 𝑎 and 𝑏,
𝑎 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑐, 𝑐∈ℝ
where ∗ denotes any one of the four operations
Commutative Property
The operations of addition and multiplication on real
numbers are commutative as the order of the numbers are not important.
The operations of addition and multiplication on real
numbers are associative
𝑎+𝑏 +𝑐 =𝑎+ 𝑏+𝑐
𝑎×𝑏 ×𝑐 =𝑎× 𝑏×𝑐 Distributive Property
For real numbers, the operations of multiplication is
distributive over addition and subtraction
𝑎 𝑏 + 𝑐 = 𝑎𝑏 + 𝑎𝑐 𝑎 𝑏 − 𝑐 = 𝑎𝑏 − 𝑎𝑐 Identity Property 0 is the identity element for addition 𝑎+0=0+𝑎 =𝑎 1 is the identity element for multiplication 𝑎×1=1×𝑎 =𝑎 Given two real numbers 𝑎 and 𝑏, the possibilities are: 1. 𝑎 is equal to 𝑏, written as 𝑎 = 𝑏 2. 𝑎 is greater than 𝑏, written as 𝑎 > 𝑏 3. 𝑎 is less than 𝑏, written as 𝑎 < 𝑏 The ℝ on the number line are ordered in increasing magnitude from the left to the right
