SET OF REAL NUMBERS

SUBMITTED BY: JEROME C. ALVIOR

Subsets of real numbers

NAMES

DESCRIPTION

Examples

NATURAL NUMBERS

N={1,2,3,4,5}
These numbers are
used for counting.

2,3,4,5,8,7

WHOLE NUMBERS

W={0,1,2,3,4,.}
These numbers are
formed by adding 0
to the set of real
numbers.

0,2,3,5,8,17

INTEGERS

They are formed by

adding negatives of
the natural numbers
to the set of whole
numbers.

-19,-8,-24,94,0,2,3,4,5

RATIONAL NUMBERS

The set of rational

numbers is the set of
all members which
can be expressed in
the form a/b,where a,

SET OF REAL NUMBERS

Groupingorclassifyingis a familiar technique in the natural sciences for dealing with the
immense diversity of things in the real world. For instance, in biology, plants and animals
are divided into various phyla, and then into classes, orders, families, genera, and species. In
much the same way, real numbers can be grouped or classified by singling out important
features possessed by some numbers but not by others. By using the idea of aset,
classification of real numbers can be accomplished with clarity and precision.
Asetmay be thought of as a collection of objects. Most sets considered in this tutorial are
sets of real numbers. Any one of the objects in a set is called anelement, ormember, of
the set. Sets are denoted either by capital letters such asA,BandCor by
braces{}enclosing symbols for the elements in the set. Thus, if we write{1,2,3,4,5}, we
mean the set whose elements are the numbers1,2,3,4and5. Two sets are said to
beequalif they contain precisely the same elements.

IDEAS ABOUT REAL

NUMBERS
Sets of numbers and relations among such sets can often be visualized by
the use of anumber lineorcoordinate axis. A number line is constructed by
fixing a pointOcalled theoriginand another pointUcalled theunit pointon
a straight lineL. The distance between O andUis called theunit
distanceand may be1inch,1centimeter, or1unit of whatever measure you
choose. If the lineLis horizontal, it is customary to placeUto the right ofO.
Each pointPon the lineLis now assigned a numerical address
orcoordinatexrepresenting its signed distance from the origin, measured in
terms of the given unit. Thus,x=d, wheredis the distance
betweenOandP; the plus sign or minus sign is used to indicate whetherto
be right or left ofO. Of course, the originOis assigned the
coordinate0(zero), and the unit pointUis assigned the coordinate1. On the
resulting number scale, each pointPhas a corresponding numerical
coordinatexand each real numberxis the coordinate of a uniquely
determined pointP. It is convenient to use an arrowhead on the number line
to indicate the direction in which the numerical coordinates are increasing.

EXAMPLES:
Express each rational number as a decimal.
(a)35 (b)38 (c)176 (d)37
Solution:
(a)35=0.6
(b)38=0.375
(c)176=2.83333=2.83
(d)37=0.428571428571428571=0.428571
Example:
Express each terminating decimal as a quotient of integers.
(a)0.7 (b)0.63 (c)1.075
Solution:
(a)0.7=710
(b)0.63=63100
(c)1.075=10751000=4340

 All previously defined sets of numbers (N, W

and J) are subsets of the rational numbers (Q).
There are numbers that cannot be expressed as
fractions, and these numbers are called
IRRATIONAL NUMBERS.
*IRRATIONAL NUMBERS (H):
Cannot be expressed as a fraction (for example,
square root of 2 or
3:=1.414214...,=1.732051...).
As decimals they never terminate and have no
repeating pattern (for example,
1.234567891011...).