6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

Number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure,
and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1,
2, 3, 4, and so forth.[1] Numbers can be represented in
language with number words. More universally, individual
numbers can be represented by symbols, called numerals; for
example, "5" is a numeral that represents the number five. As
only a relatively small number of symbols can be memorized,
basic numerals are commonly organized in a numeral system,
which is an organized way to represent any number. The most
common numeral system is the Hindu–Arabic numeral
system, which allows for the representation of any non- Set inclusions between the natural
numbers (ℕ), the integers (ℤ), the rational
negative integer using a combination of ten fundamental
numbers (ℚ), the real numbers (ℝ), and
numeric symbols, called digits.[2][a] In addition to their use in the complex numbers (ℂ)
counting and measuring, numerals are often used for labels
(as with telephone numbers), for ordering (as with serial
numbers), and for codes (as with ISBNs). In common usage, a numeral is not clearly distinguished
from the number that it represents.

In mathematics, the notion of number has been extended over the centuries to include zero (0),[3]
negative numbers,[4] rational numbers such as one half , real numbers such as the square root of
2 and π,[5] and complex numbers[6] which extend the real numbers with a square root of −1
(and its combinations with real numbers by adding or subtracting its multiples).[4] Calculations with
numbers are done with arithmetical operations, the most familiar being addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, and exponentiation. Their study or usage is called arithmetic, a term which
may also refer to number theory, the study of the properties of numbers.

Besides their practical uses, numbers have cultural significance throughout the world.[7][8] For
example, in Western society, the number 13 is often regarded as unlucky, and "a million" may signify
"a lot" rather than an exact quantity.[7] Though it is now regarded as pseudoscience, belief in a
mystical significance of numbers, known as numerology, permeated ancient and medieval thought.[9]
Numerology heavily influenced the development of Greek mathematics, stimulating the investigation
of many problems in number theory which are still of interest today.[9]

During the 19th century, mathematicians began to develop many different abstractions which share
certain properties of numbers, and may be seen as extending the concept. Among the first were the
hypercomplex numbers, which consist of various extensions or modifications of the complex number
system. In modern mathematics, number systems are considered important special examples of more
general algebraic structures such as rings and fields, and the application of the term "number" is a
matter of convention, without fundamental significance.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 1/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

History

First use of numbers

Bones and other artifacts have been discovered with marks cut into them that many believe are tally
marks.[11] These tally marks may have been used for counting elapsed time, such as numbers of days,
lunar cycles or keeping records of quantities, such as of animals.

A tallying system has no concept of place value (as in modern decimal notation), which limits its
representation of large numbers. Nonetheless, tallying systems are considered the first kind of
abstract numeral system.

The earliest unambiguous numbers in the archaeological record are the Mesopotamian base 60
system (c. 3400 BC);[12] place value emerged in it in the 3rd millennium BCE.[13] The earliest known
base 10 system dates to 3100 BC in Egypt.[14]

Numerals
Numbers should be distinguished from numerals, the symbols used to represent numbers. The
Egyptians invented the first ciphered numeral system, and the Greeks followed by mapping their
counting numbers onto Ionian and Doric alphabets.[15] Roman numerals, a system that used
combinations of letters from the Roman alphabet, remained dominant in Europe until the spread of
the superior Hindu–Arabic numeral system around the late 14th century, and the Hindu–Arabic
numeral system remains the most common system for representing numbers in the world today.[16]
The key to the effectiveness of the system was the symbol for zero, which was developed by ancient
Indian mathematicians around 500 AD.[16]

Zero
The first known recorded use of zero dates to AD 628, and appeared in the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta,
the main work of the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta. He treated 0 as a number and discussed
operations involving it, including division by zero. By this time (the 7th century), the concept had
clearly reached Cambodia in the form of Khmer numerals,[17] and documentation shows the idea later
spreading to China and the Islamic world.

Brahmagupta's Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta is the first book that mentions zero as a number, hence
Brahmagupta is usually considered the first to formulate the concept of zero. He gave rules of using
zero with negative and positive numbers, such as "zero plus a positive number is a positive number,
and a negative number plus zero is the negative number". The Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta is the earliest
known text to treat zero as a number in its own right, rather than as simply a placeholder digit in
representing another number as was done by the Babylonians or as a symbol for a lack of quantity as
was done by Ptolemy and the Romans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 2/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

The use of 0 as a number should be distinguished from its use

as a placeholder numeral in place-value systems. Many ancient
texts used 0. Babylonian and Egyptian texts used it. Egyptians
used the word nfr to denote zero balance in double entry
accounting. Indian texts used a Sanskrit word Shunye or
shunya to refer to the concept of void. In mathematics texts
this word often refers to the number zero.[18] In a similar vein,
Pāṇini (5th century BC) used the null (zero) operator in the
Ashtadhyayi, an early example of an algebraic grammar for the The number 605 in Khmer numerals,
Sanskrit language (also see Pingala). from an inscription from 683 AD. Early
use of zero as a decimal figure.
There are other uses of zero before Brahmagupta, though the
documentation is not as complete as it is in the
Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta.

Records show that the Ancient Greeks seemed unsure about the status of 0 as a number: they asked
themselves "How can 'nothing' be something?" leading to interesting philosophical and, by the
Medieval period, religious arguments about the nature and existence of 0 and the vacuum. The
paradoxes of Zeno of Elea depend in part on the uncertain interpretation of 0. (The ancient Greeks
even questioned whether 1 was a number.)

The late Olmec people of south-central Mexico began to use a symbol for zero, a shell glyph, in the
New World, possibly by the 4th century BC but certainly by 40 BC, which became an integral part of
Maya numerals and the Maya calendar. Maya arithmetic used base 4 and base 5 written as base 20.
George I. Sánchez in 1961 reported a base 4, base 5 "finger" abacus.[19]

By 130 AD, Ptolemy, influenced by Hipparchus and the Babylonians, was using a symbol for 0 (a
small circle with a long overbar) within a sexagesimal numeral system otherwise using alphabetic
Greek numerals. Because it was used alone, not as just a placeholder, this Hellenistic zero was the first
documented use of a true zero in the Old World. In later Byzantine manuscripts of his Syntaxis
Mathematica (Almagest), the Hellenistic zero had morphed into the Greek letter Omicron (otherwise
meaning 70).

Another true zero was used in tables alongside Roman numerals by 525 (first known use by Dionysius
Exiguus), but as a word, nulla meaning nothing, not as a symbol. When division produced 0 as a
remainder, nihil, also meaning nothing, was used. These medieval zeros were used by all future
medieval computists (calculators of Easter). An isolated use of their initial, N, was used in a table of
Roman numerals by Bede or a colleague about 725, a true zero symbol.

Negative numbers
The abstract concept of negative numbers was recognized as early as 100–50 BC in China. The Nine
Chapters on the Mathematical Art contains methods for finding the areas of figures; red rods were
used to denote positive coefficients, black for negative.[20] The first reference in a Western work was
in the 3rd century AD in Greece. Diophantus referred to the equation equivalent to 4x + 20 = 0 (the
solution is negative) in Arithmetica, saying that the equation gave an absurd result.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 3/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

During the 600s, negative numbers were in use in India to represent debts. Diophantus' previous
reference was discussed more explicitly by Indian mathematician Brahmagupta, in
Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta in 628, who used negative numbers to produce the general form quadratic
formula that remains in use today. However, in the 12th century in India, Bhaskara gives negative
roots for quadratic equations but says the negative value "is in this case not to be taken, for it is
inadequate; people do not approve of negative roots".

European mathematicians, for the most part, resisted the concept of negative numbers until the
17th century, although Fibonacci allowed negative solutions in financial problems where they could be
interpreted as debts (chapter 13 of Liber Abaci, 1202) and later as losses (in Flos). René Descartes
called them false roots as they cropped up in algebraic polynomials yet he found a way to swap true
roots and false roots as well. At the same time, the Chinese were indicating negative numbers by
drawing a diagonal stroke through the right-most non-zero digit of the corresponding positive
number's numeral.[21] The first use of negative numbers in a European work was by Nicolas Chuquet
during the 15th century. He used them as exponents, but referred to them as "absurd numbers".

As recently as the 18th century, it was common practice to ignore any negative results returned by
equations on the assumption that they were meaningless.

Rational numbers
It is likely that the concept of fractional numbers dates to prehistoric times. The Ancient Egyptians
used their Egyptian fraction notation for rational numbers in mathematical texts such as the Rhind
Mathematical Papyrus and the Kahun Papyrus. Classical Greek and Indian mathematicians made
studies of the theory of rational numbers, as part of the general study of number theory.[22] The best
known of these is Euclid's Elements, dating to roughly 300 BC. Of the Indian texts, the most relevant
is the Sthananga Sutra, which also covers number theory as part of a general study of mathematics.

The concept of decimal fractions is closely linked with decimal place-value notation; the two seem to
have developed in tandem. For example, it is common for the Jain math sutra to include calculations
of decimal-fraction approximations to pi or the square root of 2. Similarly, Babylonian math texts
used sexagesimal (base 60) fractions with great frequency.

Irrational numbers
The earliest known use of irrational numbers was in the Indian Sulba Sutras composed between 800
and 500 BC.[23] The first existence proofs of irrational numbers is usually attributed to Pythagoras,
more specifically to the Pythagorean Hippasus of Metapontum, who produced a (most likely
geometrical) proof of the irrationality of the square root of 2. The story goes that Hippasus discovered
irrational numbers when trying to represent the square root of 2 as a fraction. However, Pythagoras
believed in the absoluteness of numbers, and could not accept the existence of irrational numbers. He
could not disprove their existence through logic, but he could not accept irrational numbers, and so,
allegedly and frequently reported, he sentenced Hippasus to death by drowning, to impede spreading
of this disconcerting news.[24]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 4/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

The 16th century brought final European acceptance of negative integral and fractional numbers. By
the 17th century, mathematicians generally used decimal fractions with modern notation. It was not,
however, until the 19th century that mathematicians separated irrationals into algebraic and
transcendental parts, and once more undertook the scientific study of irrationals. It had remained
almost dormant since Euclid. In 1872, the publication of the theories of Karl Weierstrass (by his pupil
E. Kossak), Eduard Heine,[25] Georg Cantor,[26] and Richard Dedekind[27] was brought about. In
1869, Charles Méray had taken the same point of departure as Heine, but the theory is generally
referred to the year 1872. Weierstrass's method was completely set forth by Salvatore Pincherle
(1880), and Dedekind's has received additional prominence through the author's later work (1888)
and endorsement by Paul Tannery (1894). Weierstrass, Cantor, and Heine base their theories on
infinite series, while Dedekind founds his on the idea of a cut (Schnitt) in the system of real numbers,
separating all rational numbers into two groups having certain characteristic properties. The subject
has received later contributions at the hands of Weierstrass, Kronecker,[28] and Méray.

The search for roots of quintic and higher degree equations was an important development, the Abel–
Ruffini theorem (Ruffini 1799, Abel 1824) showed that they could not be solved by radicals (formulas
involving only arithmetical operations and roots). Hence it was necessary to consider the wider set of
algebraic numbers (all solutions to polynomial equations). Galois (1832) linked polynomial equations
to group theory giving rise to the field of Galois theory.

Simple continued fractions, closely related to irrational numbers (and due to Cataldi, 1613), received
attention at the hands of Euler,[29] and at the opening of the 19th century were brought into
prominence through the writings of Joseph Louis Lagrange. Other noteworthy contributions have
been made by Druckenmüller (1837), Kunze (1857), Lemke (1870), and Günther (1872). Ramus[30]
first connected the subject with determinants, resulting, with the subsequent contributions of
Heine,[31] Möbius, and Günther,[32] in the theory of Kettenbruchdeterminanten.

Transcendental numbers and reals

The existence of transcendental numbers[33] was first established by Liouville (1844, 1851). Hermite
proved in 1873 that e is transcendental and Lindemann proved in 1882 that π is transcendental.
Finally, Cantor showed that the set of all real numbers is uncountably infinite but the set of all
algebraic numbers is countably infinite, so there is an uncountably infinite number of transcendental
numbers.

Infinity and infinitesimals

The earliest known conception of mathematical infinity appears in the Yajur Veda, an ancient Indian
script, which at one point states, "If you remove a part from infinity or add a part to infinity, still what
remains is infinity." Infinity was a popular topic of philosophical study among the Jain
mathematicians c. 400 BC. They distinguished between five types of infinity: infinite in one and two
directions, infinite in area, infinite everywhere, and infinite perpetually. The symbol is often used
to represent an infinite quantity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 5/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

Aristotle defined the traditional Western notion of mathematical infinity. He distinguished between
actual infinity and potential infinity—the general consensus being that only the latter had true value.
Galileo Galilei's Two New Sciences discussed the idea of one-to-one correspondences between infinite
sets. But the next major advance in the theory was made by Georg Cantor; in 1895 he published a
book about his new set theory, introducing, among other things, transfinite numbers and formulating
the continuum hypothesis.

In the 1960s, Abraham Robinson showed how infinitely large and infinitesimal numbers can be
rigorously defined and used to develop the field of nonstandard analysis. The system of hyperreal
numbers represents a rigorous method of treating the ideas about infinite and infinitesimal numbers
that had been used casually by mathematicians, scientists, and engineers ever since the invention of
infinitesimal calculus by Newton and Leibniz.

A modern geometrical version of infinity is given by projective geometry, which introduces "ideal
points at infinity", one for each spatial direction. Each family of parallel lines in a given direction is
postulated to converge to the corresponding ideal point. This is closely related to the idea of vanishing
points in perspective drawing.

Complex numbers
The earliest fleeting reference to square roots of negative numbers occurred in the work of the
mathematician and inventor Heron of Alexandria in the 1st century AD, when he considered the
volume of an impossible frustum of a pyramid. They became more prominent when in the
16th century closed formulas for the roots of third and fourth degree polynomials were discovered by
Italian mathematicians such as Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia and Gerolamo Cardano. It was soon
realized that these formulas, even if one was only interested in real solutions, sometimes required the
manipulation of square roots of negative numbers.

This was doubly unsettling since they did not even consider negative numbers to be on firm ground at
the time. When René Descartes coined the term "imaginary" for these quantities in 1637, he intended
it as derogatory. (See imaginary number for a discussion of the "reality" of complex numbers.) A
further source of confusion was that the equation

seemed capriciously inconsistent with the algebraic identity

which is valid for positive real numbers a and b, and was also used in complex number calculations
with one of a, b positive and the other negative. The incorrect use of this identity, and the related
identity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 6/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

in the case when both a and b are negative even bedeviled Euler.[34] This difficulty eventually led him
to the convention of using the special symbol i in place of to guard against this mistake.

The 18th century saw the work of Abraham de Moivre and Leonhard Euler. De Moivre's formula
(1730) states:

while Euler's formula of complex analysis (1748) gave us:

The existence of complex numbers was not completely accepted until Caspar Wessel described the
geometrical interpretation in 1799. Carl Friedrich Gauss rediscovered and popularized it several years
later, and as a result the theory of complex numbers received a notable expansion. The idea of the
graphic representation of complex numbers had appeared, however, as early as 1685, in Wallis's De
algebra tractatus.

In the same year, Gauss provided the first generally accepted proof of the fundamental theorem of
algebra, showing that every polynomial over the complex numbers has a full set of solutions in that
realm. Gauss studied complex numbers of the form a + bi, where a and b are integers (now called
Gaussian integers) or rational numbers. His student, Gotthold Eisenstein, studied the type a + bω,
where ω is a complex root of x3 − 1 = 0 (now called Eisenstein integers). Other such classes (called
cyclotomic fields) of complex numbers derive from the roots of unity xk − 1 = 0 for higher values of k.
This generalization is largely due to Ernst Kummer, who also invented ideal numbers, which were
expressed as geometrical entities by Felix Klein in 1893.

In 1850 Victor Alexandre Puiseux took the key step of distinguishing between poles and branch
points, and introduced the concept of essential singular points. This eventually led to the concept of
the extended complex plane.

Prime numbers
Prime numbers have been studied throughout recorded history. They are positive integers that are
divisible only by 1 and themselves. Euclid devoted one book of the Elements to the theory of primes;
in it he proved the infinitude of the primes and the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, and presented
the Euclidean algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers.

In 240 BC, Eratosthenes used the Sieve of Eratosthenes to quickly isolate prime numbers. But most
further development of the theory of primes in Europe dates to the Renaissance and later eras.

In 1796, Adrien-Marie Legendre conjectured the prime number theorem, describing the asymptotic
distribution of primes. Other results concerning the distribution of the primes include Euler's proof
that the sum of the reciprocals of the primes diverges, and the Goldbach conjecture, which claims that
any sufficiently large even number is the sum of two primes. Yet another conjecture related to the
distribution of prime numbers is the Riemann hypothesis, formulated by Bernhard Riemann in 1859.
The prime number theorem was finally proved by Jacques Hadamard and Charles de la Vallée-
Poussin in 1896. Goldbach and Riemann's conjectures remain unproven and unrefuted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 7/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

Main classification
Numbers can be classified into sets, called number sets or number systems, such as the natural
numbers and the real numbers. The main number systems are as follows:

Main number systems

Symbol Name Examples/Explanation

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...
Natural numbers or are sometimes used.

Integers ..., −5, −4, −3, −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...

Rational a
⁠b ⁠where a and b are integers and b is not 0
numbers

Real numbers The limit of a convergent sequence of rational numbers

Complex a + bi where a and b are real numbers and i is a formal square

numbers root of −1

Each of these number systems is a subset of the next one. So, for example, a rational number is also a
real number, and every real number is also a complex number. This can be expressed symbolically as

A more complete list of number sets appears in the following diagram.

Number systems

Zero: 0
One: 1
Natural
Integer Prime numbers
Composite
Rational numbers
Negative integers
Real
Complex
Finite decimal
Fraction Dyadic (finite binary)
Repeating decimal

Algebraic irrational
Irrational Irrational period
Transcendental

Imaginary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 8/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

Natural numbers
The most familiar numbers are the natural numbers
(sometimes called whole numbers or counting numbers): 1, 2,
3, and so on. Traditionally, the sequence of natural numbers
started with 1 (0 was not even considered a number for the
Ancient Greeks.) However, in the 19th century, set theorists
and other mathematicians started including 0 (cardinality of
the empty set, i.e. 0 elements, where 0 is thus the smallest
cardinal number) in the set of natural numbers.[35][36] Today,
different mathematicians use the term to describe both sets,
including 0 or not. The mathematical symbol for the set of all
natural numbers is N, also written , and sometimes or
when it is necessary to indicate whether the set should
start with 0 or 1, respectively. The natural numbers, starting with 1

In the base 10 numeral system, in almost universal use today

for mathematical operations, the symbols for natural numbers are written using ten digits: 0, 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. The radix or base is the number of unique numerical digits, including zero, that a
numeral system uses to represent numbers (for the decimal system, the radix is 10). In this base 10
system, the rightmost digit of a natural number has a place value of 1, and every other digit has a place
value ten times that of the place value of the digit to its right.

In set theory, which is capable of acting as an axiomatic foundation for modern mathematics,[37]
natural numbers can be represented by classes of equivalent sets. For instance, the number 3 can be
represented as the class of all sets that have exactly three elements. Alternatively, in Peano Arithmetic,
the number 3 is represented as sss0, where s is the "successor" function (i.e., 3 is the third successor
of 0). Many different representations are possible; all that is needed to formally represent 3 is to
inscribe a certain symbol or pattern of symbols three times.

Integers
The negative of a positive integer is defined as a number that produces 0 when it is added to the
corresponding positive integer. Negative numbers are usually written with a negative sign (a minus
sign). As an example, the negative of 7 is written −7, and 7 + (−7) = 0. When the set of negative
numbers is combined with the set of natural numbers (including 0), the result is defined as the set of
integers, Z also written . Here the letter Z comes from German Zahl 'number'. The set of integers
forms a ring with the operations addition and multiplication.[38]

The natural numbers form a subset of the integers. As there is no common standard for the inclusion
or not of zero in the natural numbers, the natural numbers without zero are commonly referred to as
positive integers, and the natural numbers with zero are referred to as non-negative integers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 9/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

Rational numbers
A rational number is a number that can be expressed as a fraction with an integer numerator and a
positive integer denominator. Negative denominators are allowed, but are commonly avoided, as
every rational number is equal to a fraction with positive denominator. Fractions are written as two
m
integers, the numerator and the denominator, with a dividing bar between them. The fraction ⁠n
represents m parts of a whole divided into n equal parts. Two different fractions may correspond to
1 2
the same rational number; for example ⁠2 ⁠and ⁠4 ⁠are equal, that is:

In general,

if and only if

If the absolute value of m is greater than n (supposed to be positive), then the absolute value of the
fraction is greater than 1. Fractions can be greater than, less than, or equal to 1 and can also be
positive, negative, or 0. The set of all rational numbers includes the integers since every integer can be
−7
written as a fraction with denominator 1. For example −7 can be written ⁠ 1 ⁠. The symbol for the
rational numbers is Q (for quotient), also written .

Real numbers
The symbol for the real numbers is R, also written as They include all the measuring numbers.
Every real number corresponds to a point on the number line. The following paragraph will focus
primarily on positive real numbers. The treatment of negative real numbers is according to the
general rules of arithmetic and their denotation is simply prefixing the corresponding positive
numeral by a minus sign, e.g. −123.456.

Most real numbers can only be approximated by decimal numerals, in which a decimal point is placed
to the right of the digit with place value 1. Each digit to the right of the decimal point has a place value
123456
one-tenth of the place value of the digit to its left. For example, 123.456 represents ⁠ 1000 ⁠, or, in
words, one hundred, two tens, three ones, four tenths, five hundredths, and six thousandths. A real
number can be expressed by a finite number of decimal digits only if it is rational and its fractional
part has a denominator whose prime factors are 2 or 5 or both, because these are the prime factors of
10, the base of the decimal system. Thus, for example, one half is 0.5, one fifth is 0.2, one-tenth is 0.1,
and one fiftieth is 0.02. Representing other real numbers as decimals would require an infinite
sequence of digits to the right of the decimal point. If this infinite sequence of digits follows a pattern,
it can be written with an ellipsis or another notation that indicates the repeating pattern. Such a
1
decimal is called a repeating decimal. Thus ⁠3 ⁠ can be written as 0.333..., with an ellipsis to indicate
that the pattern continues. Forever repeating 3s are also written as 0.3.[39]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 10/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

It turns out that these repeating decimals (including the repetition of zeroes) denote exactly the
rational numbers, i.e., all rational numbers are also real numbers, but it is not the case that every real
number is rational. A real number that is not rational is called irrational. A famous irrational real
number is the π, the ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter. When pi is written as

as it sometimes is, the ellipsis does not mean that the decimals repeat (they do not), but rather that
there is no end to them. It has been proved that π is irrational. Another well-known number, proven
to be an irrational real number, is

the square root of 2, that is, the unique positive real number whose square is 2. Both these numbers
have been approximated (by computer) to trillions ( 1 trillion = 1012 = 1,000,000,000,000 ) of digits.

Not only these prominent examples but almost all real numbers are irrational and therefore have no
repeating patterns and hence no corresponding decimal numeral. They can only be approximated by
decimal numerals, denoting rounded or truncated real numbers. Any rounded or truncated number is
necessarily a rational number, of which there are only countably many. All measurements are, by their
nature, approximations, and always have a margin of error. Thus 123.456 is considered an
1234555 1234565
approximation of any real number greater or equal to ⁠ 10000 ⁠and strictly less than ⁠ 10000 ⁠(rounding
123456 123457
to 3 decimals), or of any real number greater or equal to ⁠ 1000 ⁠ and strictly less than ⁠ 1000 ⁠
(truncation after the 3. decimal). Digits that suggest a greater accuracy than the measurement itself
does, should be removed. The remaining digits are then called significant digits. For example,
measurements with a ruler can seldom be made without a margin of error of at least 0.001 m. If the
sides of a rectangle are measured as 1.23 m and 4.56 m, then multiplication gives an area for the
rectangle between 5.614591 m2 and 5.603011 m2. Since not even the second digit after the decimal
place is preserved, the following digits are not significant. Therefore, the result is usually rounded to
5.61.

Just as the same fraction can be written in more than one way, the same real number may have more
than one decimal representation. For example, 0.999..., 1.0, 1.00, 1.000, ..., all represent the natural
number 1. A given real number has only the following decimal representations: an approximation to
some finite number of decimal places, an approximation in which a pattern is established that
continues for an unlimited number of decimal places or an exact value with only finitely many decimal
places. In this last case, the last non-zero digit may be replaced by the digit one smaller followed by an
unlimited number of 9s, or the last non-zero digit may be followed by an unlimited number of zeros.
Thus the exact real number 3.74 can also be written 3.7399999999... and 3.74000000000....
Similarly, a decimal numeral with an unlimited number of 0s can be rewritten by dropping the 0s to
the right of the rightmost nonzero digit, and a decimal numeral with an unlimited number of 9s can
be rewritten by increasing by one the rightmost digit less than 9, and changing all the 9s to the right of
that digit to 0s. Finally, an unlimited sequence of 0s to the right of a decimal place can be dropped.
For example, 6.849999999999... = 6.85 and 6.850000000000... = 6.85. Finally, if all of the digits in a

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 11/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

numeral are 0, the number is 0, and if all of the digits in a numeral are an unending string of 9s, you
can drop the nines to the right of the decimal place, and add one to the string of 9s to the left of the
decimal place. For example, 99.999... = 100.

The real numbers also have an important but highly technical property called the least upper bound
property.

It can be shown that any ordered field, which is also complete, is isomorphic to the real numbers. The
real numbers are not, however, an algebraically closed field, because they do not include a solution
(often called a square root of minus one) to the algebraic equation .

Complex numbers
Moving to a greater level of abstraction, the real numbers can be extended to the complex numbers.
This set of numbers arose historically from trying to find closed formulas for the roots of cubic and
quadratic polynomials. This led to expressions involving the square roots of negative numbers, and
eventually to the definition of a new number: a square root of −1, denoted by i, a symbol assigned by
Leonhard Euler, and called the imaginary unit. The complex numbers consist of all numbers of the
form

where a and b are real numbers. Because of this, complex numbers correspond to points on the
complex plane, a vector space of two real dimensions. In the expression a + bi, the real number a is
called the real part and b is called the imaginary part. If the real part of a complex number is 0, then
the number is called an imaginary number or is referred to as purely imaginary; if the imaginary part
is 0, then the number is a real number. Thus the real numbers are a subset of the complex numbers. If
the real and imaginary parts of a complex number are both integers, then the number is called a
Gaussian integer. The symbol for the complex numbers is C or .

The fundamental theorem of algebra asserts that the complex numbers form an algebraically closed
field, meaning that every polynomial with complex coefficients has a root in the complex numbers.
Like the reals, the complex numbers form a field, which is complete, but unlike the real numbers, it is
not ordered. That is, there is no consistent meaning assignable to saying that i is greater than 1, nor is
there any meaning in saying that i is less than 1. In technical terms, the complex numbers lack a total
order that is compatible with field operations.

Subclasses of the integers

Even and odd numbers

An even number is an integer that is "evenly divisible" by two, that is divisible by two without
remainder; an odd number is an integer that is not even. (The old-fashioned term "evenly divisible"
is now almost always shortened to "divisible".) Any odd number n may be constructed by the formula

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 12/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

n = 2k + 1, for a suitable integer k. Starting with k = 0, the first non-negative odd numbers are {1, 3, 5,
7, ...}. Any even number m has the form m = 2k where k is again an integer. Similarly, the first non-
negative even numbers are {0, 2, 4, 6, ...}.

Prime numbers
A prime number, often shortened to just prime, is an integer greater than 1 that is not the product
of two smaller positive integers. The first few prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, and 11. There is no such
simple formula as for odd and even numbers to generate the prime numbers. The primes have been
widely studied for more than 2000 years and have led to many questions, only some of which have
been answered. The study of these questions belongs to number theory. Goldbach's conjecture is an
example of a still unanswered question: "Is every even number the sum of two primes?"

One answered question, as to whether every integer greater than one is a product of primes in only
one way, except for a rearrangement of the primes, was confirmed; this proven claim is called the
fundamental theorem of arithmetic. A proof appears in Euclid's Elements.

Other classes of integers

Many subsets of the natural numbers have been the subject of specific studies and have been named,
often after the first mathematician that has studied them. Example of such sets of integers are
Fibonacci numbers and perfect numbers. For more examples, see Integer sequence.

Subclasses of the complex numbers

Algebraic, irrational and transcendental numbers

Algebraic numbers are those that are a solution to a polynomial equation with integer coefficients.
Real numbers that are not rational numbers are called irrational numbers. Complex numbers which
are not algebraic are called transcendental numbers. The algebraic numbers that are solutions of a
monic polynomial equation with integer coefficients are called algebraic integers.

Periods and exponential periods

A period is a complex number that can be expressed as an integral of an algebraic function over an
algebraic domain. The periods are a class of numbers which includes, alongside the algebraic
numbers, many well known mathematical constants such as the number π. The set of periods form a
countable ring and bridge the gap between algebraic and transcendental numbers.[40][41]

The periods can be extended by permitting the integrand to be the product of an algebraic function
and the exponential of an algebraic function. This gives another countable ring: the exponential
periods. The number e as well as Euler's constant are exponential periods.[40][42]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 13/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

Constructible numbers
Motivated by the classical problems of constructions with straightedge and compass, the constructible
numbers are those complex numbers whose real and imaginary parts can be constructed using
straightedge and compass, starting from a given segment of unit length, in a finite number of steps.

Computable numbers
A computable number, also known as recursive number, is a real number such that there exists an
algorithm which, given a positive number n as input, produces the first n digits of the computable
number's decimal representation. Equivalent definitions can be given using μ-recursive functions,
Turing machines or λ-calculus. The computable numbers are stable for all usual arithmetic
operations, including the computation of the roots of a polynomial, and thus form a real closed field
that contains the real algebraic numbers.

The computable numbers may be viewed as the real numbers that may be exactly represented in a
computer: a computable number is exactly represented by its first digits and a program for computing
further digits. However, the computable numbers are rarely used in practice. One reason is that there
is no algorithm for testing the equality of two computable numbers. More precisely, there cannot exist
any algorithm which takes any computable number as an input, and decides in every case if this
number is equal to zero or not.

The set of computable numbers has the same cardinality as the natural numbers. Therefore, almost all
real numbers are non-computable. However, it is very difficult to produce explicitly a real number
that is not computable.

Extensions of the concept

p-adic numbers
The p-adic numbers may have infinitely long expansions to the left of the decimal point, in the same
way that real numbers may have infinitely long expansions to the right. The number system that
results depends on what base is used for the digits: any base is possible, but a prime number base
provides the best mathematical properties. The set of the p-adic numbers contains the rational
numbers, but is not contained in the complex numbers.

The elements of an algebraic function field over a finite field and algebraic numbers have many
similar properties (see Function field analogy). Therefore, they are often regarded as numbers by
number theorists. The p-adic numbers play an important role in this analogy.

Hypercomplex numbers
Some number systems that are not included in the complex numbers may be constructed from the
real numbers in a way that generalize the construction of the complex numbers. They are
sometimes called hypercomplex numbers. They include the quaternions , introduced by Sir William

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 14/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

Rowan Hamilton, in which multiplication is not commutative, the octonions , in which

multiplication is not associative in addition to not being commutative, and the sedenions , in which
multiplication is not alternative, neither associative nor commutative. The hypercomplex numbers
include one real unit together with imaginary units, for which n is a non-negative integer. For
example, quaternions can generally represented using the form

where the coefficients a, b, c, d are real numbers, and i, j, k are 3 different imaginary units.

Each hypercomplex number system is a subset of the next hypercomplex number system of double
dimensions obtained via the Cayley–Dickson construction. For example, the 4-dimensional
quaternions are a subset of the 8-dimensional quaternions , which are in turn a subset of the 16-
dimensional sedenions , in turn a subset of the 32-dimensional trigintaduonions , and ad infinitum
with dimensions, with n being any non-negative integer. Including the complex and real numbers
and their subsets, this can be expressed symbolically as:

Alternatively, starting from the real numbers , which have zero complex units, this can be expressed
as

with containing dimensions.[43]

Transfinite numbers
For dealing with infinite sets, the natural numbers have been generalized to the ordinal numbers and
to the cardinal numbers. The former gives the ordering of the set, while the latter gives its size. For
finite sets, both ordinal and cardinal numbers are identified with the natural numbers. In the infinite
case, many ordinal numbers correspond to the same cardinal number.

Nonstandard numbers
Hyperreal numbers are used in non-standard analysis. The hyperreals, or nonstandard reals (usually
denoted as *R), denote an ordered field that is a proper extension of the ordered field of real numbers
R and satisfies the transfer principle. This principle allows true first-order statements about R to be
reinterpreted as true first-order statements about *R.

Superreal and surreal numbers extend the real numbers by adding infinitesimally small numbers and
infinitely large numbers, but still form fields.

See also
Concrete number List of types of numbers
List of numbers List of books on history of number systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 15/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

Mathematical constant – Fixed number that has received a name

Mathematics portal
Complex numbers
Numerical cognition
Orders of magnitude
Physical constant – Universal and unchanging physical quantity
Physical quantity – Measurable property of a material or system
Pi – Number, approximately 3.14
Positional notation – Method for representing or encoding numbers
Prime number – Number divisible only by 1 or itself
Scalar (mathematics) – Elements of a field, e.g. real numbers, in the
context of linear algebra
Subitizing and counting

Notes
a. In linguistics, a numeral can refer to a symbol like 5, but also to a word or a phrase that names a
number, like "five hundred"; numerals include also other words representing numbers, like
"dozen".
1. "number, n." (http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/129082) OED Online. Oxford University Press.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20181004081907/http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/129082)
from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
2. "numeral, adj. and n." (http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/129111) OED Online. Oxford University
Press. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20220730095156/https://www.oed.com/start;jsession
id=B9929F0647C8EE5D4FDB3A3C1B2CA3C3?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F1
29111) from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
3. Matson, John. "The Origin of Zero" (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/history-of-zero/).
Scientific American. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170826235655/https://www.scientific
american.com/article/history-of-zero/) from the original on 26 August 2017. Retrieved 16 May
2017.
4. Hodgkin, Luke (2 June 2005). A History of Mathematics: From Mesopotamia to Modernity (https://
books.google.com/books?id=f6HlhlBuQUgC&pg=PA88). OUP Oxford. pp. 85–88. ISBN 978-0-19-
152383-0. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190204012433/https://books.google.com/book
s?id=f6HlhlBuQUgC&pg=PA88) from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
5. Mathematics across cultures : the history of non-western mathematics. Dordrecht: Kluwer
Academic. 2000. pp. 410–411. ISBN 1-4020-0260-2.
6. Descartes, René (1954) [1637]. La Géométrie: The Geometry of René Descartes with a facsimile
of the first edition (https://archive.org/details/geometryofrenede00rend). Dover Publications.
ISBN 0-486-60068-8. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
7. Gilsdorf, Thomas E. (2012). Introduction to cultural mathematics : with case studies in the
Otomies and the Incas (https://books.google.com/books?id=IN8El-TTlSQC). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
ISBN 978-1-118-19416-4. OCLC 793103475 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/793103475).
8. Restivo, Sal P. (1992). Mathematics in society and history : sociological inquiries (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=V0RuCQAAQBAJ&q=Mathematics+in+Society+and+History). Dordrecht.
ISBN 978-94-011-2944-2. OCLC 883391697 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/883391697).
9. Ore, Øystein (1988). Number theory and its history (https://books.google.com/books?id=Sl_6BPp7
S0AC). New York: Dover. ISBN 0-486-65620-9. OCLC 17413345 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/
17413345).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 16/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

10. Gouvêa, Fernando Q. The Princeton Companion to Mathematics, Chapter II.1, "The Origins of
Modern Mathematics", p. 82. Princeton University Press, September 28, 2008. ISBN 978-0-691-
11880-2. "Today, it is no longer that easy to decide what counts as a 'number.' The objects from
the original sequence of 'integer, rational, real, and complex' are certainly numbers, but so are the
p-adics. The quaternions are rarely referred to as 'numbers,' on the other hand, though they can
be used to coordinatize certain mathematical notions."
11. Marshack, Alexander (1971). The roots of civilization; the cognitive beginnings of man's first art,
symbol, and notation (1st ed.) (https://books.google.com/books?id=vbQ9AAAAIAAJ). New York:
McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-040535-2. OCLC 257105 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/257105).
12. Schmandt-Besserat, Denise (1992). Before Writing: From Counting to Cuneiform (2 vols).
University of Texas Press.
13. Robson, Eleanor (2008). Mathematics in Ancient Iraq: A Social History. Princeton University
Press.
14. "Egyptian Mathematical Papyri – Mathematicians of the African Diaspora" (http://www.math.buffal
o.edu/mad/Ancient-Africa/mad_ancient_egyptpapyrus.html#berlin). Math.buffalo.edu. Archived (htt
ps://web.archive.org/web/20150407231917/http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/Ancient-Africa/mad_
ancient_egyptpapyrus.html#berlin) from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
15. Chrisomalis, Stephen (1 September 2003). "The Egyptian origin of the Greek alphabetic
numerals". Antiquity. 77 (297): 485–96. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00092541 (https://doi.org/10.101
7%2FS0003598X00092541). ISSN 0003-598X (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0003-598X).
S2CID 160523072 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:160523072).
16. Bulliet, Richard; Crossley, Pamela; Headrick, Daniel; Hirsch, Steven; Johnson, Lyman (2010). The
Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History, Volume 1 (https://books.google.com/books?id=dOxl71w-j
HEC&pg=PA192). Cengage Learning. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-4390-8474-8. Archived (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20170128072424/https://books.google.com/books?id=dOxl71w-jHEC&pg=PA192)
from the original on 28 January 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2017. "Indian mathematicians invented
the concept of zero and developed the "Arabic" numerals and system of place-value notation used
in most parts of the world today"
17. Aczel, Amir D. (7 May 2015). "My Quest to Find the First Zero" (https://time.com/3845786/my-que
st-to-find-the-first-zero/). TIME. Retrieved 15 February 2025.
18. "Historia Matematica Mailing List Archive: Re: [HM] The Zero Story: a question" (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20120112073735/http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/apr99/01
97.html). Sunsite.utk.edu. 26 April 1999. Archived from the original (http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_ar
chives/.http/hypermail/historia/apr99/0197.html) on 12 January 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
19. Sánchez, George I. (1961). Arithmetic in Maya. Austin, Texas: self published.
20. Staszkow, Ronald; Robert Bradshaw (2004). The Mathematical Palette (3rd ed.). Brooks Cole.
p. 41. ISBN 0-534-40365-4.
21. Smith, David Eugene (1958). History of Modern Mathematics. Dover Publications. p. 259. ISBN 0-
486-20429-4.
22. "Classical Greek culture (article)" (https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/ancient-
medieval/classical-greece/a/greek-culture). Khan Academy. Archived (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20220504133917/https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/ancient-medieval/clas
sical-greece/a/greek-culture) from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
23. Selin, Helaine, ed. (2000). Mathematics across cultures: the history of non-Western mathematics.
Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 451. ISBN 0-7923-6481-3.
24. Bernard Frischer (1984). "Horace and the Monuments: A New Interpretation of the Archytas Ode".
In D.R. Shackleton Bailey (ed.). Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. Harvard University Press.
p. 83. ISBN 0-674-37935-7.
25. Eduard Heine, "Die Elemente der Functionenlehre", [Crelle's] Journal für die reine und
angewandte Mathematik, No. 74 (1872): 172–188.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 17/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

26. Georg Cantor, "Ueber unendliche, lineare Punktmannichfaltigkeiten", pt. 5, Mathematische

Annalen, 21, 4 (1883‑12): 545–591.
27. Richard Dedekind, Stetigkeit & irrationale Zahlen (https://books.google.com/books?id=n-43AAAA
MAAJ) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20210709184745/https://books.google.ca/books?id=
n-43AAAAMAAJ) 2021-07-09 at the Wayback Machine (Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn,
1872). Subsequently published in: ———, Gesammelte mathematische Werke, ed. Robert Fricke,
Emmy Noether & Öystein Ore (Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn, 1932), vol. 3, pp. 315–
334.
28. L. Kronecker, "Ueber den Zahlbegriff", [Crelle's] Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik,
No. 101 (1887): 337–355.
29. Leonhard Euler, "Conjectura circa naturam aeris, pro explicandis phaenomenis in atmosphaera
observatis", Acta Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae, 1779, 1 (1779): 162–187.
30. Ramus, "Determinanternes Anvendelse til at bes temme Loven for de convergerende Bröker", in:
Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs naturvidenskabelige og mathematiske
Afhandlinger (Kjoebenhavn: 1855), p. 106.
31. Eduard Heine, "Einige Eigenschaften der Laméschen Funktionen", [Crelle's] Journal für die reine
und angewandte Mathematik, No. 56 (Jan. 1859): 87–99 at 97.
32. Siegmund Günther, Darstellung der Näherungswerthe von Kettenbrüchen in independenter Form
(Erlangen: Eduard Besold, 1873); ———, "Kettenbruchdeterminanten", in: Lehrbuch der
Determinanten-Theorie: Für Studirende (Erlangen: Eduard Besold, 1875), c. 6, pp. 156–186.
33. Bogomolny, A. "What's a number?" (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/numbers.shtml).
Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100923
231547/http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/numbers.shtml) from the original on 23
September 2010. Retrieved 11 July 2010.
34. Martínez, Alberto A. (2007). "Euler's 'mistake'? The radical product rule in historical perspective" (h
ttps://www.martinezwritings.com/m/Euler_files/EulerMonthly.pdf) (PDF). The American
Mathematical Monthly. 114 (4): 273–285. doi:10.1080/00029890.2007.11920416 (https://doi.org/1
0.1080%2F00029890.2007.11920416). S2CID 43778192 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusI
D:43778192).
35. Weisstein, Eric W. "Natural Number" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/NaturalNumber.html).
MathWorld.
36. "natural number" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/natural%20number). Merriam-
Webster.com. Merriam-Webster. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20191213133201/https://w
ww.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/natural%20number) from the original on 13 December 2019.
Retrieved 4 October 2014.
37. Suppes, Patrick (1972). Axiomatic Set Theory (https://archive.org/details/axiomaticsettheo00supp
_0/page/1). Courier Dover Publications. p. 1 (https://archive.org/details/axiomaticsettheo00supp_
0/page/1). ISBN 0-486-61630-4.
38. Weisstein, Eric W. "Integer" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Integer.html). MathWorld.
39. Weisstein, Eric W. "Repeating Decimal" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RepeatingDecimal.html).
Wolfram MathWorld. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20200805170548/https://mathworld.w
olfram.com/RepeatingDecimal.html) from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
40. Kontsevich, Maxim; Zagier, Don (2001), Engquist, Björn; Schmid, Wilfried (eds.), "Periods" (http
s://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-56478-9_39), Mathematics Unlimited — 2001
and Beyond, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 771–808, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-56478-9_39 (http
s://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-642-56478-9_39), ISBN 978-3-642-56478-9, retrieved
22 September 2024
41. Weisstein, Eric W. "Algebraic Period" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/AlgebraicPeriod.html).
mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 22 September 2024.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 18/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

42. Lagarias, Jeffrey C. (19 July 2013). "Euler's constant: Euler's work and modern developments".
Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 50 (4): 527–628. arXiv:1303.1856 (https://arxiv.org/
abs/1303.1856). doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-2013-01423-X (https://doi.org/10.1090%2FS0273-0979
-2013-01423-X). ISSN 0273-0979 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0273-0979).
43. Saniga, Metod; Holweck, Frédéric; Pracna, Petr (2015). "From Cayley-Dickson Algebras to
Combinatorial Grassmannians" (https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fmath3041192). Mathematics. 3 (4).
MDPI AG: 1192–1221. arXiv:1405.6888 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1405.6888).
doi:10.3390/math3041192 (https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fmath3041192). ISSN 2227-7390 (https://se
arch.worldcat.org/issn/2227-7390).

References
Tobias Dantzig, Number, the language of science; a critical survey written for the cultured non-
mathematician, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1930.
Erich Friedman, What's special about this number? (https://www.stetson.edu/~efriedma/numbers.
html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180223062027/http://www2.stetson.edu/~efriedma/
numbers.html) 2018-02-23 at the Wayback Machine
Steven Galovich, Introduction to Mathematical Structures, Harcourt Brace Javanovich, 1989,
ISBN 0-15-543468-3.
Paul Halmos, Naive Set Theory, Springer, 1974, ISBN 0-387-90092-6.
Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times, Oxford University Press,
1990. ISBN 978-0195061352
Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, Principia Mathematica to *56, Cambridge University
Press, 1910.
Leo Cory, A Brief History of Numbers, Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-870259-7.

External links
Nechaev, V.I. (2001) [1994]. "Number" (https://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=Num
ber&oldid=11869). Encyclopedia of Mathematics. EMS Press.
Tallant, Jonathan. "Do Numbers Exist" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160308015528/http://www.n
umberphile.com/videos/exist.html). Numberphile. Brady Haran. Archived from the original (http://w
ww.numberphile.com/videos/exist.html) on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
In Our Time: Negative Numbers (https://web.archive.org/web/20220531120903/https://www.bbc.c
o.uk/programmes/p003hyd9). BBC Radio 4. 9 March 2006. Archived from the original (https://ww
w.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003hyd9) on 31 May 2022.
Robin Wilson (7 November 2007). "4000 Years of Numbers" (http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-a
nd-events/4000-years-of-numbers). Gresham College. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2022
0408112133/http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/4000-years-of-numbers) from the
original on 8 April 2022.
Krulwich, Robert (22 July 2011). "What's the World's Favorite Number?" (https://www.npr.org/secti
ons/krulwich/2011/07/22/138493147/what-s-your-favorite-number-world-wide-survey-v1). NPR.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20210518141211/https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/201
1/07/22/138493147/what-s-your-favorite-number-world-wide-survey-v1) from the original on 18
May 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2011.; "Cuddling With 9, Smooching With 8, Winking At 7" (htt
ps://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=139797360). NPR. 21 August 2011.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20181106205912/https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/tr

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 19/20
6/9/25, 2:55 PM Number - Wikipedia

anscript.php?storyId=139797360?storyId=139797360) from the original on 6 November 2018.

Retrieved 17 September 2011.
Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (http://oeis.org)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Number&oldid=1289994477"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number 20/20