What's Between Q and R

1967 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 308-314
Author(s):  
James Fey

Among the objectives of school mathematics instruction, one of the most important is to develop understanding of the structure, properties, and evolution of the number systems. The student who knows the need for, and the technique of, each extension from the natural numbers through the complex numbers has a valuable insight into mathematics. Of the steps in the development, that from the rational numbers to the real numbers is the trickiest.

10.37236/749 ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Avi Berman ◽  
Shmuel Friedland ◽  
Leslie Hogben ◽  
Uriel G. Rothblum ◽  
Bryan Shader

We use a technique based on matroids to construct two nonzero patterns $Z_1$ and $Z_2$ such that the minimum rank of matrices described by $Z_1$ is less over the complex numbers than over the real numbers, and the minimum rank of matrices described by $Z_2$ is less over the real numbers than over the rational numbers. The latter example provides a counterexample to a conjecture by Arav, Hall, Koyucu, Li and Rao about rational realization of minimum rank of sign patterns. Using $Z_1$ and $Z_2$, we construct symmetric patterns, equivalent to graphs $G_1$ and $G_2$, with the analogous minimum rank properties. We also discuss issues of computational complexity related to minimum rank.


Author(s):  
José Ferreirós

This chapter considers two crucial shifts in mathematical knowledge: the natural numbers ℕ and the real number system ℝ. ℝ has proved to serve together with the natural numbers ℕ as one of the two core structures of mathematics; together they are what Solomon Feferman described as “the sine qua non of our subject, both pure and applied.” Indeed, nobody can claim to have a basic grasp of mathematics without mastery of the central elements in the theory of both number systems. The chapter examines related theories and conceptions about real numbers, with particular emphasis on the work of J. H. Lambert and Sir Isaac Newton. It also discusses various conceptions of the number continuum, assumptions about simple infinity and arbitrary infinity, and the development of mathematics in relation to the real numbers. Finally, it reflects on the link between mathematical hypotheses and scientific practices.


Author(s):  
Алексеенко ◽  
A. Alekseenko ◽  
Лихачева ◽  
M. Likhacheva

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of real numbers in the discipline "Algebra and analysis" in the secondary school. The theme of "Real numbers" is not easy to understand and often causes difficulties for students. However, the study of this topic is now being given enough attention and time. The consequence is a lack of understanding of students and school-leavers, what constitutes the real numbers, irrational numbers. At the same time the notion of a real number is required for further successful study of mathematics. To improve the efficiency of studying the topic and form a clear idea about the different numbers offered to add significantly to the material of modern textbooks, increase the number of hours in the study of real numbers, as well as to include in the school course of algebra topics "Complex numbers" and "Algebraic structures".


2008 ◽  
Vol 145 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIEN BARRAL ◽  
STÉPHANE SEURET

AbstractWe are interested in two properties of real numbers: the first one is the property of being well-approximated by some dense family of real numbers {xn}n≥1, such as rational numbers and more generally algebraic numbers, and the second one is the property of having given digit frequencies in some b-adic expansion.We combine these two ways of classifying the real numbers, in order to provide a finer classification. We exhibit sets S of points x which are approximated at a given rate by some of the {xn}n, those xn being selected according to their digit frequencies. We compute the Hausdorff dimension of any countable intersection of such sets S, and prove that these sets enjoy the so-called large intersection property.


Author(s):  
John Stillwell

This chapter describes how one proceeds from natural to rational numbers, then to real and complex numbers, and to continuous functions—thus arithmetizing the foundations of analysis and geometry. The definitions of integers and rational numbers show why questions about them can, in principle, be reduced to questions about natural numbers and their addition and multiplication. This is what it means to say that the natural numbers are a foundation for the integer and rational numbers. But the next steps in the arithmetization project go beyond algebra. By admitting sets of rational numbers, one can enlarge the number system to one that admits certain infinite operations, such as forming infinite sums. This is crucial to building a foundation for analysis. As such, the chapter turns to the foundations of the natural numbers themselves, the “Peano axioms,” which gives a first glimpse of the logic underlying the arithmetization project.


1982 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideaki Ōshima

The purpose of this note is to determine some unstable James numbers of Stiefel manifolds. We denote the real numbers by R, the complex numbers by C, and the quaternions by H. Let F be one of these fields with the usual norm, and d = dimRF. Let On, k = On, k(F) be the Stiefel manifold of all orthonormal k–frames in Fn, and q: On, k → Sdn−1 the bundle projection which associates with each frame its last vector. Then the James number O{n, k} = OF{n, k} is defined as the index of q* πdn−1(On, k) in πdn−1(Sdn−1). We already know when O{n, k} is 1 (cf. (1), (2), (3), (13), (33)), and also the value of OK{n, k} (cf. (1), (13), (15), (34)). In this note we shall consider the complex and quaternionic cases. For earlier work see (11), (17), (23), (27), (29), (31) and (32). In (27) we defined the stable James number , which was a divisor of O{n, k}. Following James we shall use the notations X{n, k}, Xs{n, k}, W{n, k} and Ws{n, k} instead of OH{n, k}, , Oc{n, k} and respectively. In (27) we noticed that O{n, k} = Os{n, k} if n ≥ 2k– 1, and determined Xs{n, k} for 1 ≤ k ≤ 4, and also Ws{n, k} for 1 ≤ k ≤ 8. On the other hand Sigrist (31) calculated W{n, k} for 1 ≤ k ≤ 4. He informed the author that W{6,4} was not 4 but 8. Since Ws{6,4} = 4 (cf. § 5 below) this yields that the unstable James number does not equal the stable one in general.


1950 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-134
Author(s):  
R. M. Martin

In a simple, applied functional calculus of first order (i.e., one admitting no functional variables but at least one functional constant), abstracts or schematic expressions may be introduced to play the role of variables over designatable sets or classes. The entities or quasi-entities designated or quasi-designated by such abstracts may be called, following Quine, virtual classes and relations. The notion of virtual class is always relative to a given formalism and depends upon what functional constants are taken as primitive. The first explicit introduction of a general notation for virtual classes (relative to a given formalism) appears to be D4.1 of the author's A homogeneous system for formal logic. That paper develops a system admitting only individuals as values for variables and is adequate for the theory of general recursive functions of natural numbers. Numbers and functions are in fact identified with certain kinds of virtual classes and relations.In the present paper it will be shown how certain portions of the theory of real numbers can be constructed upon the basis of the theory of virtual classes and relations of H.L.The method of building up the real numbers to be employed is essentially an adaptation of standard procedure. Although the main ideas underlying this method are well known, the mirroring of these ideas within the framework of the restricted concepts admitted here presents possibly some novelty. In particular, a basis for the real numbers is provided which in no way admits classes or relations or other "abstract" objects as values for variables. Presupposing the natural numbers, the essential steps are to construct the simple rationals as virtual dyadic relations between natural numbers, to construct the generalized or signed rationals as virtual tetradic relations among natural numbers, and then to formulate a notation for real numbers as virtual classes (of a certain kind) of generalized rationals. Of course, there are several alternative methods. This procedure, however, appears to correspond more to the usual one.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Ragusa

In 1891 Georg Cantor published his Diagonal Argument which, he asserted, proved that the real numbers cannot be put into a one-to-one correspondence with the natural numbers. In this paper we will see how by varying the initial conditions of the demonstration we can use Cantor’s method to produce a one-to-one correspondence between the set of natural numbers and the set of infinite binary decimals in the open interval (0, 1).


1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Wilker

In an earlier number of this Bulletin, P. Erdös [1] posed the following problem. “For each line ℓ of the plane, Aℓ is a segment of ℓ. Show that the set ∪ℓAℓ contains the sides of a triangle.” One objective of this paper is to prove a strengthened version of this result in iV-dimensions. As usual denotes the cardinality of the natural numbers and c, the cardinality of the real numbers.


Author(s):  
Juan Ramirez

We present the real number system as a natural generalization of the natural numbers. First, we prove the co-finite topology, $Cof(\mathbb N)$, is isomorphic to the natural numbers. Then, we generalize these results to describe the continuum $[0,1]$. Then we prove the power set $2^{\mathbb Z}$ contains a subset isomorphic to the non-negative real numbers, with all its defining structure of operations and order. Finally, we provide two different constructions of the entire real number line. We see that the power set $2^{\mathbb N}$ can be given the defining structure of $\mathbb R$. The constructions here provided give simple rules for calculating addition, multiplication, subtraction, division, powers and rational powers of real numbers, and logarithms. The supremum and infimum are explicitly constructed by means of a well defined algorithm that ends in denumerable steps. In section 5 we give evidence our construction of $\mathbb N$ and $\mathbb R$ are canonical; these constructions are as natural as possible. In the same section, we propose a new axiomatic basis for analysis. In the last section we provide a series of graphic representations and physical models that can be used to represent the real number system. We conclude that the system of real numbers is completely defined by the order structure of $\mathbb N$.}


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