In mathematics, we need to refer to some certain sets of numbers so often that we denote them by special symbols (in particular by
Table of Contents
Natural Numbers
The most common numbers are the numbers 1, 2, 3, … which are used for counting are called natural numbers or positive integers. The set of all natural numbers is often denoted by
Integers
The numbers
which can also be written as
Rational Numbers
A rational number is a number that can be written as a fraction, or quotient, of two integers. For example,
- All integers are rational numbers because they can be written as a fraction with denominator 1; for example,
can be written as . - Other examples of rational numbers include numbers that have decimal representations that either terminate (for example
can be written as ) or do not terminate but have repeating blocks of digits (for example is the same as ).
The set of all rational numbers is denoted by
Irrational Numbers
The ancient Greeks knew that the lengths of some lines in simple figures cannot be expressed as the ratio of integers. For example, from the Pythagorean theorem they knew that the diagonal of a square with sides of unit length is
- The decimal digit representation of an irrational number goes on forever and never repeats.
Real Numbers
The set of all rational and irrational numbers is called the set of real numbers and is denoted by
- Note that
Complex Numbers
The set of all numbers in the form
In this course, we only deal with real numbers.
Number Line
Real numbers can be thought of as points on an infinitely long line called the number line (also known as number axis, coordinate line, or real line), where
Properties of Real Numbers
Here are some properties of real numbers:
- The product of any number and
is
- If
then either or (or both of them are zero).
- If
is a number then there is a unique number such that , and we write We say that is the inverse of . If and are two numbers means .
- Note that
has no inverse because must mean , but . This shows that we cannot assign a definite value to . So division by zero is not an admissible operation, and if is any number, has no meaning.
- If
, then because (but again has no meaning).
- Basic properties of the fundamental operations — addition, subtraction, multiplication and division — that are often called the basic rules of algebra are summarized in the following table. These properties are true for real numbers, variables, and algebraic expressions.
Summary of Basic Rules of Algebra
Name | Math | Description | Example |
Commutative Property of Addition
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We can add numbers in any order
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Commutative Property of Multiplication
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We can multiply in any order
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Associative Property of Addition
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We can group numbers in a sum any way we want and get the same answer.
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Associative Property of Multiplication
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We can group numbers in a product any way we want and get the same answer.
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Distributive Property
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We can distribute multiplication over all terms of the sums or differences within parentheses
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Additive identity property
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Adding zero to any number yields the same number
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Multiplicative identity property
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Multiplying any number by 1 yields the same number
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Additive inverse property
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If we add a number and its opposite, we will get 0
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Multiplicative inverse property
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If we multiply a nonzero number and its reciprocal, we will get 1
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