In
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, a real number is a
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual number ...
that can be used to
measure a ''continuous'' one-
dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coord ...
al
quantity
Quantity or amount is a property that can exist as a multitude or magnitude, which illustrate discontinuity and continuity. Quantities can be compared in terms of "more", "less", or "equal", or by assigning a numerical value multiple of a u ...
such as a
distance,
duration or
temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that values can have arbitrarily small variations. Every real number can be almost uniquely represented by an infinite
decimal expansion
A decimal representation of a non-negative real number is its expression as a sequence of symbols consisting of decimal digits traditionally written with a single separator:
r = b_k b_\ldots b_0.a_1a_2\ldots
Here is the decimal separator, ...
.
The real numbers are fundamental in
calculus
Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizati ...
(and more generally in all mathematics), in particular by their role in the classical definitions of
limits,
continuity and
derivative
In mathematics, the derivative of a function of a real variable measures the sensitivity to change of the function value (output value) with respect to a change in its argument (input value). Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. ...
s.
The set of real numbers is
denoted or
and is sometimes called "the reals".
The adjective ''real'' in this context was introduced in the 17th century by
René Descartes
René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Ma ...
to distinguish real numbers, associated with physical reality, from
imaginary numbers (such as the
square root
In mathematics, a square root of a number is a number such that ; in other words, a number whose '' square'' (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or ⋅ ) is . For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16, because .
...
s of ), which seemed like a theoretical contrivance unrelated to physical reality.
The real numbers
include the
rational numbers, such as the
integer and the
fraction . The rest of the real numbers are called
irrational numbers, and include
algebraic numbers (such as the square root ) and
transcendental numbers (such as ).
Real numbers can be thought of as all points on an infinitely long
line called the
number line or
real line, where the points corresponding to integers () are equally spaced.
Conversely,
analytic geometry is the association of points on lines (especially
axis lines) to real numbers such that geometric
displacements are proportional to
differences between corresponding numbers.
The informal descriptions above of the real numbers are not sufficient for ensuring the correctness of proofs of
theorems involving real numbers. The realization that a better definition was needed, and the elaboration of such a definition was a major development of
19th-century mathematics and is the foundation of
real analysis, the study of
real functions and real-valued
sequences. A current
axiomatic definition is that real numbers form the
unique (
up to an
isomorphism)
Dedekind-complete ordered field. Other common definitions of real numbers include
equivalence classes of
Cauchy sequences (of rational numbers),
Dedekind cuts, and infinite
decimal representations. All these definitions satisfy the axiomatic definition and are thus equivalent.
Properties
Basic properties
* The real numbers include
''zero'' (), the ''
additive identity'':
adding to any real number leaves that number unchanged: .
* Every real number has an ''
additive inverse'' satisfying .
* The real numbers include a
''unit'' (), the ''
multiplicative identity'':
multiplying by any real number leaves that number unchanged: .
* Every nonzero real number has a ''
multiplicative inverse'' satisfying .
* Given any two real numbers and , the results of addition (),
subtraction (), and multiplication () are also real numbers, as is the result of
division () if is not zero. Thus the real numbers are
closed
Closed may refer to:
Mathematics
* Closure (mathematics), a set, along with operations, for which applying those operations on members always results in a member of the set
* Closed set, a set which contains all its limit points
* Closed interval, ...
under
elementary arithmetic operations.
* The real numbers form a ''
field''.
* The real numbers are ''
linearly ordered''. For any distinct real numbers and , either or . If and then . (See also
inequality (mathematics).)
* Any nonzero real number is either
''negative'' () or
''positive'' ().
* The real numbers are an ''
ordered field'' because the order is compatible with addition and multiplication: if then ; if and then . Because the square of any real number is non-negative, and the sum and product of non-negative real numbers is itself non-negative, non-negative real numbers are a
''positive cone'' of .
* The real numbers make up an infinite set of numbers that cannot be
injectively mapped to the infinite set of natural numbers, i.e., there are uncountably infinitely many real numbers, whereas the natural numbers are called ''
countably infinite''. This establishes that in some sense, there are ''more'' real numbers than there are elements in any countable set.
* Any
nonempty bounded
''open interval'' (the set of all real numbers between two specified endpoints) can be mapped
bijectively by an
affine function (
scaling and
translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
of the number line) to any other such interval. Every nonempty open interval contains uncountably infinitely many real numbers.
* The real numbers are
''unbounded''. There is no greatest or least real number; the real numbers extend infinitely in both positive and negative directions.
* There is a hierarchy of countably infinite subsets of the real numbers, e.g., the
integers, the
rational numbers, the
algebraic numbers and the
computable numbers, each set being a proper subset of the next in the sequence. The
complements of each of these sets in the reals (irrational, transcendental, and non-computable real numbers) is uncountably infinite.
* Real numbers can be used to express
measurements of
continuous quantities. They may be expressed by
decimal representations, most of them having an infinite sequence of digits to the right of the
decimal point; these are often represented like 324.823122147..., where the
ellipsis indicates that infinitely many digits have been omitted.
More formally, the real numbers have the two basic properties of being an ordered field, and having the
least upper bound property. The first says that real numbers comprise a
field, with addition and multiplication as well as division by nonzero numbers, which can be totally ordered on a number line in a way compatible with addition and multiplication. The second says that, if a nonempty set of real numbers has an
upper bound, then it has a real
least upper bound. The second condition distinguishes the real numbers from the rational numbers: for example, the set of rational numbers whose square is less than 2 is a set with an upper bound (e.g. 1.5) but no (rational) least upper bound: hence the rational numbers do not satisfy the least upper bound property.
Completeness
A main reason for using real numbers is so that many sequences have
limits. More formally, the reals are
complete
Complete may refer to:
Logic
* Completeness (logic)
* Completeness of a theory, the property of a theory that every formula in the theory's language or its negation is provable
Mathematics
* The completeness of the real numbers, which implies t ...
(in the sense of
metric spaces or
uniform spaces, which is a different sense than the Dedekind completeness of the order in the previous section):
A
sequence (''x''
''n'') of real numbers is called a ''
Cauchy sequence'' if for any there exists an integer ''N'' (possibly depending on ε) such that the
distance is less than ε for all ''n'' and ''m'' that are both greater than ''N''. This definition, originally provided by
Cauchy, formalizes the fact that the ''x''
''n'' eventually come and remain arbitrarily close to each other.
A sequence (''x''
''n'') ''converges to the limit'' ''x'' if its elements eventually come and remain arbitrarily close to ''x'', that is, if for any there exists an integer ''N'' (possibly depending on ε) such that the distance is less than ε for ''n'' greater than ''N''.
Every convergent sequence is a Cauchy sequence, and the converse is true for real numbers, and this means that the
topological space
In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a geometrical space in which closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric distance. More specifically, a topological space is a set whose elements are called poin ...
of the real numbers is complete.
The set of rational numbers is not complete. For example, the sequence (1; 1.4; 1.41; 1.414; 1.4142; 1.41421; ...), where each term adds a digit of the decimal expansion of the positive
square root
In mathematics, a square root of a number is a number such that ; in other words, a number whose '' square'' (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or ⋅ ) is . For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16, because .
...
of 2, is Cauchy but it does not converge to a rational number (in the real numbers, in contrast, it converges to the positive
square root
In mathematics, a square root of a number is a number such that ; in other words, a number whose '' square'' (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or ⋅ ) is . For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16, because .
...
of 2).
The completeness property of the reals is the basis on which
calculus
Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizati ...
, and, more generally
mathematical analysis
Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limits, and related theories, such as differentiation, integration, measure, infinite sequences, series, and analytic functions.
These theories are usually studied ...
are built. In particular, the test that a sequence is a Cauchy sequence allows proving that a sequence has a limit, without computing it, and even without knowing it.
For example, the standard series of the
exponential function
:
converges to a real number for every ''x'', because the sums
:
can be made arbitrarily small (independently of ''M'') by choosing ''N'' sufficiently large. This proves that the sequence is Cauchy, and thus converges, showing that
is well defined for every ''x''.
"The complete ordered field"
The real numbers are often described as "the complete ordered field", a phrase that can be interpreted in several ways.
First, an order can be
lattice-complete. It is easy to see that no ordered field can be lattice-complete, because it can have no
largest element (given any element ''z'', is larger).
Additionally, an order can be Dedekind-complete, see . The uniqueness result at the end of that section justifies using the word "the" in the phrase "complete ordered field" when this is the sense of "complete" that is meant. This sense of completeness is most closely related to the construction of the reals from Dedekind cuts, since that construction starts from an ordered field (the rationals) and then forms the Dedekind-completion of it in a standard way.
These two notions of completeness ignore the field structure. However, an
ordered group (in this case, the additive group of the field) defines a
uniform structure, and uniform structures have a notion of
completeness; the description in
§ Completeness is a special case. (We refer to the notion of completeness in uniform spaces rather than the related and better known notion for
metric spaces, since the definition of metric space relies on already having a characterization of the real numbers.) It is not true that
is the ''only'' uniformly complete ordered field, but it is the only uniformly complete ''
Archimedean field'', and indeed one often hears the phrase "complete Archimedean field" instead of "complete ordered field". Every uniformly complete Archimedean field must also be Dedekind-complete (and vice versa), justifying using "the" in the phrase "the complete Archimedean field". This sense of completeness is most closely related to the construction of the reals from Cauchy sequences (the construction carried out in full in this article), since it starts with an Archimedean field (the rationals) and forms the uniform completion of it in a standard way.
But the original use of the phrase "complete Archimedean field" was by
David Hilbert, who meant still something else by it. He meant that the real numbers form the ''largest'' Archimedean field in the sense that every other Archimedean field is a subfield of
. Thus
is "complete" in the sense that nothing further can be added to it without making it no longer an Archimedean field. This sense of completeness is most closely related to the construction of the reals from
surreal numbers, since that construction starts with a proper class that contains every ordered field (the surreals) and then selects from it the largest Archimedean subfield.
Cardinality
The set of all real numbers is
uncountable, in the sense that while both the set of all
natural number
In mathematics, the natural numbers are those numbers used for counting (as in "there are ''six'' coins on the table") and ordering (as in "this is the ''third'' largest city in the country").
Numbers used for counting are called '' cardinal ...
s and the set of all real numbers are
infinite sets, there can be no
one-to-one function from the real numbers to the natural numbers. The
cardinality of the set of all real numbers is denoted by
and called the
cardinality of the continuum. It is strictly greater than the cardinality of the set of all natural numbers (denoted
and called
'aleph-naught'), and equals the cardinality of the
power set of the set of the natural numbers.
The statement that there is no subset of the reals with cardinality strictly greater than
and strictly smaller than
is known as the
continuum hypothesis (CH). It is neither provable nor refutable using the axioms of
Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory including the
axiom of choice (ZFC)—the standard foundation of modern mathematics. In fact, some models of ZFC satisfy CH, while others violate it.
Advanced properties
As a topological space, the real numbers are
separable. This is because the set of rationals, which is countable, is dense in the real numbers. The irrational numbers are also dense in the real numbers, however they are uncountable and have the same cardinality as the reals.
The real numbers form a
metric space: the distance between ''x'' and ''y'' is defined as the
absolute value . By virtue of being a totally ordered set, they also carry an
order topology; the
topology
In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...
arising from the metric and the one arising from the order are identical, but yield different presentations for the topology—in the order topology as ordered intervals, in the metric topology as epsilon-balls. The Dedekind cuts construction uses the order topology presentation, while the Cauchy sequences construction uses the metric topology presentation. The reals form a
contractible (hence
connected and
simply connected),
separable and
complete
Complete may refer to:
Logic
* Completeness (logic)
* Completeness of a theory, the property of a theory that every formula in the theory's language or its negation is provable
Mathematics
* The completeness of the real numbers, which implies t ...
metric space of
Hausdorff dimension
In mathematics, Hausdorff dimension is a measure of ''roughness'', or more specifically, fractal dimension, that was first introduced in 1918 by mathematician Felix Hausdorff. For instance, the Hausdorff dimension of a single point is zero, of ...
1. The real numbers are
locally compact but not
compact
Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to:
* Interstate compact
* Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines
* Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in Britis ...
. There are various properties that uniquely specify them; for instance, all unbounded, connected, and separable
order topologies are necessarily
homeomorphic to the reals.
Every nonnegative real number has a
square root
In mathematics, a square root of a number is a number such that ; in other words, a number whose '' square'' (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or ⋅ ) is . For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16, because .
...
in
, although no negative number does. This shows that the order on
is determined by its algebraic structure. Also, every
polynomial of odd degree admits at least one real root: these two properties make
the premier example of a
real closed field. Proving this is the first half of one proof of the
fundamental theorem of algebra.
The reals carry a canonical
measure, the
Lebesgue measure, which is the
Haar measure on their structure as a
topological group normalized such that the
unit interval ;1has measure 1. There exist sets of real numbers that are not Lebesgue measurable, e.g.
Vitali sets.
The supremum axiom of the reals refers to subsets of the reals and is therefore a second-order logical statement. It is not possible to characterize the reals with
first-order logic alone: the
Löwenheim–Skolem theorem implies that there exists a countable dense subset of the real numbers satisfying exactly the same sentences in first-order logic as the real numbers themselves. The set of
hyperreal numbers satisfies the same first order sentences as
. Ordered fields that satisfy the same first-order sentences as
are called
nonstandard models of
. This is what makes
nonstandard analysis work; by proving a first-order statement in some nonstandard model (which may be easier than proving it in
), we know that the same statement must also be true of
.
The
field of real numbers is an
extension field of the field
of rational numbers, and
can therefore be seen as a
vector space over
.
Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the
axiom of choice guarantees the existence of a
basis of this vector space: there exists a set ''B'' of real numbers such that every real number can be written uniquely as a finite
linear combination of elements of this set, using rational coefficients only, and such that no element of ''B'' is a rational linear combination of the others. However, this existence theorem is purely theoretical, as such a base has never been explicitly described.
The
well-ordering theorem implies that the real numbers can be
well-ordered if the axiom of choice is assumed: there exists a total order on
with the property that every nonempty
subset of
has a
least element in this ordering. (The standard ordering ≤ of the real numbers is not a well-ordering since e.g. an
open interval does not contain a least element in this ordering.) Again, the existence of such a well-ordering is purely theoretical, as it has not been explicitly described. If
V=L is assumed in addition to the axioms of ZF, a well ordering of the real numbers can be shown to be explicitly definable by a formula.
A real number may be either
computable
Computability is the ability to solve a problem in an effective manner. It is a key topic of the field of computability theory within mathematical logic and the theory of computation within computer science. The computability of a problem is clos ...
or uncomputable; either
algorithmically random or not; and either
arithmetically random or not.
History
Simple fractions
A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...
were used by the
Egyptians around 1000 BC; the
Vedic "
Shulba Sutras The ''Shulva Sutras'' or ''Śulbasūtras'' ( Sanskrit: शुल्बसूत्र; ': "string, cord, rope") are sutra texts belonging to the Śrauta ritual and containing geometry related to fire-altar construction.
Purpose and origins
T ...
" ("The rules of chords") in include what may be the first "use" of irrational numbers. The concept of irrationality was implicitly accepted by early
Indian mathematicians such as
Manava , who was aware that the
square root
In mathematics, a square root of a number is a number such that ; in other words, a number whose '' square'' (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or ⋅ ) is . For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16, because .
...
s of certain numbers, such as 2 and 61, could not be exactly determined. Around 500 BC, the
Greek mathematicians
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
* Greeks, an ethnic group.
* Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
** Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ances ...
led by
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His poli ...
also realized that the
square root of 2 is irrational.
The
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
brought about the acceptance of
zero,
negative numbers, integers, and
fractional numbers, first by
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
and
Chinese mathematicians, and then by
Arabic mathematicians, who were also the first to treat irrational numbers as algebraic objects (the latter being made possible by the development of algebra). Arabic mathematicians merged the concepts of "
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual number ...
" and "
magnitude" into a more general idea of real numbers. The Egyptian mathematician
Abū Kāmil Shujā ibn Aslam was the first to accept irrational numbers as solutions to
quadratic equations, or as
coefficients in an
equation (often in the form of square roots,
cube roots and
fourth roots). In Europe, such numbers, not commensurable with the numerical unit, were called ''irrational'' or
''surd'' ("deaf").
In the 16th century,
Simon Stevin created the basis for modern
decimal notation, and insisted that there is no difference between rational and irrational numbers in this regard.
In the 17th century,
Descartes introduced the term "real" to describe roots of a
polynomial, distinguishing them from "imaginary" ones.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, there was much work on irrational and transcendental numbers.
Lambert (1761) gave a flawed proof that cannot be rational;
Legendre (1794) completed the proof and showed that is not the square root of a rational number.
Liouville (1840) showed that neither nor can be a root of an integer
quadratic equation, and then established the existence of transcendental numbers;
Cantor (1873) extended and greatly simplified this proof.
Hermite
Charles Hermite () FRS FRSE MIAS (24 December 1822 – 14 January 1901) was a French mathematician who did research concerning number theory, quadratic forms, invariant theory, orthogonal polynomials, elliptic functions, and algebra.
Her ...
(1873) proved that
is transcendental, and
Lindemann Lindemann is a German surname.
Persons
Notable people with the surname include:
Arts and entertainment
* Elisabeth Lindemann, German textile designer and weaver
*Jens Lindemann, trumpet player
* Julie Lindemann, American photographer
* Maggie ...
(1882), showed that is transcendental. Lindemann's proof was much simplified by Weierstrass (1885),
Hilbert (1893),
Hurwitz, and
Gordan Gordan () is a Slavic name derived Proto-Slavic ''*gъrdъ'' (gȏrd) meaning proud:
Given name
* Gordan Golik, Croatian football midfielder
* Gordan Giriček, Croatian basketball player
* Gordan Jandroković, Croatian diplomat and politician
* ...
.
The developers of
calculus
Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizati ...
used real numbers without having defined them rigorously. The first rigorous definition was published by Cantor in 1871. In 1874, he showed that the set of all real numbers is
uncountably infinite, but the set of all algebraic numbers is
countably infinite.
Cantor's first uncountability proof
Cantor's first set theory article contains Georg Cantor's first theorems of transfinite set theory, which studies infinite sets and their properties. One of these theorems is his "revolutionary discovery" that the set of all real numbers is ...
was different from his famous
diagonal argument published in 1891.
Formal definitions
The real number system
can be defined
axiomatically up to an
isomorphism, which is described hereafter. There are also many ways to construct "the" real number system, and a popular approach involves starting from natural numbers, then defining rational numbers algebraically, and finally defining real numbers as equivalence classes of their
Cauchy sequences or as Dedekind cuts, which are certain subsets of rational numbers. Another approach is to start from some rigorous axiomatization of Euclidean geometry (say of Hilbert or of
Tarski), and then define the real number system geometrically. All these constructions of the real numbers have been shown to be equivalent, in the sense that the resulting number systems are
isomorphic.
Axiomatic approach
Let
denote the
set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
of all real numbers, then:
* The set
is a
field, meaning that
addition and
multiplication are defined and have the usual properties.
* The field
is ordered, meaning that there is a
total order ≥ such that for all real numbers ''x'', ''y'' and ''z'':
** if ''x'' ≥ ''y'', then ''x'' + ''z'' ≥ ''y'' + ''z'';
** if ''x'' ≥ 0 and ''y'' ≥ 0, then ''xy'' ≥ 0.
* The order is Dedekind-complete, meaning that every nonempty subset ''S'' of
with an
upper bound in
has a
least upper bound (a.k.a., supremum) in
.
The last property is what differentiates the real numbers from the rational numbers (and from
other more exotic ordered fields). For example,
has a rational upper bound (e.g., 1.42), but no ''least'' rational upper bound, because
is not rational.
These properties imply the
Archimedean property (which is not implied by other definitions of completeness), which states that the set of integers has no upper bound in the reals. In fact, if this were false, then the integers would have a least upper bound ''N''; then, ''N'' – 1 would not be an upper bound, and there would be an integer ''n'' such that , and thus , which is a contradiction with the upper-bound property of ''N''.
The real numbers are uniquely specified by the above properties. More precisely, given any two Dedekind-complete ordered fields
and
, there exists a unique field
isomorphism from
to
. This uniqueness allows us to think of them as essentially the same mathematical object.
For another axiomatization of
, see
Tarski's axiomatization of the reals.
Construction from the rational numbers
The real numbers can be constructed as a
completion of the rational numbers, in such a way that a sequence defined by a decimal or binary expansion like (3; 3.1; 3.14; 3.141; 3.1415; ...)
converges to a unique real number—in this case . For details and other constructions of real numbers, see
construction of the real numbers.
Applications and connections
Physics
In the physical sciences, most physical constants such as the universal gravitational constant, and physical variables, such as position, mass, speed, and electric charge, are modeled using real numbers. In fact, the fundamental physical theories such as
classical mechanics,
electromagnetism
In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions o ...
,
quantum mechanics,
general relativity and the
standard model are described using mathematical structures, typically
smooth manifolds or
Hilbert spaces, that are based on the real numbers, although actual measurements of physical quantities are of finite
accuracy and precision.
Physicists have occasionally suggested that a more fundamental theory would replace the real numbers with quantities that do not form a continuum, but such proposals remain speculative.
Logic
The real numbers are most often formalized using the
Zermelo–Fraenkel axiomatization of set theory, but some mathematicians study the real numbers with other logical foundations of mathematics. In particular, the real numbers are also studied in
reverse mathematics and in
constructive mathematics.
The
hyperreal numbers as developed by
Edwin Hewitt,
Abraham Robinson and others extend the set of the real numbers by introducing
infinitesimal and infinite numbers, allowing for building
infinitesimal calculus in a way closer to the original intuitions of
Leibniz,
Euler,
Cauchy and others.
Edward Nelson
Edward Nelson (May 4, 1932 – September 10, 2014) was an American mathematician. He was professor in the Mathematics Department at Princeton University. He was known for his work on mathematical physics and mathematical logic. In mathematic ...
's
internal set theory enriches the
Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory syntactically by introducing a unary predicate "standard". In this approach, infinitesimals are (non-"standard") elements of the set of the real numbers (rather than being elements of an extension thereof, as in Robinson's theory).
The
continuum hypothesis posits that the cardinality of the set of the real numbers is
; i.e. the smallest infinite
cardinal number
In mathematics, cardinal numbers, or cardinals for short, are a generalization of the natural numbers used to measure the cardinality (size) of sets. The cardinality of a finite set is a natural number: the number of elements in the set. ...
after
, the cardinality of the integers.
Paul Cohen proved in 1963 that it is an axiom independent of the other axioms of set theory; that is: one may choose either the continuum hypothesis or its negation as an axiom of set theory, without contradiction.
Computation
Electronic calculators and
computers cannot operate on arbitrary real numbers, because finite computers cannot directly store infinitely many digits or other infinite representations. Nor do they usually even operate on arbitrary
definable real numbers, which are inconvenient to manipulate.
Instead, computers typically work with finite-precision approximations called
floating-point numbers, a representation similar to
scientific notation. The achievable precision is limited by the
data storage space allocated for each number, whether as
fixed-point, floating-point, or
arbitrary-precision numbers, or some other representation. Most
scientific computation uses
binary floating-point arithmetic, often a
64-bit representation with around 16 decimal
digits of precision. Real numbers satisfy the
usual rules of arithmetic, but
floating-point numbers do not. The field of
numerical analysis studies the
stability and
accuracy
Accuracy and precision are two measures of '' observational error''.
''Accuracy'' is how close a given set of measurements ( observations or readings) are to their '' true value'', while ''precision'' is how close the measurements are to each o ...
of numerical
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...
s implemented with approximate arithmetic.
Alternately,
computer algebra systems can operate on irrational quantities exactly by
manipulating symbolic formulas for them (such as
or
) rather than their rational or decimal approximation. But exact and symbolic arithmetic also have limitations: for instance, they are computationally more expensive; it is not in general possible to determine whether two symbolic expressions are equal (the
constant problem); and arithmetic operations can cause
exponential explosion in the size of representation of a single number (for instance, squaring a rational number roughly doubles the number of digits in its numerator and denominator, and squaring a
polynomial roughly doubles its number of terms), overwhelming finite computer storage.
A real number is called ''
computable
Computability is the ability to solve a problem in an effective manner. It is a key topic of the field of computability theory within mathematical logic and the theory of computation within computer science. The computability of a problem is clos ...
'' if there exists an algorithm that yields its digits. Because there are only
countably many algorithms,
but an uncountable number of reals,
almost all real numbers fail to be computable. Moreover, the equality of two computable numbers is an
undecidable problem. Some
constructivists accept the existence of only those reals that are computable. The set of
definable numbers is broader, but still only countable.
Set theory
In
set theory
Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly concern ...
, specifically
descriptive set theory, the
Baire space is used as a surrogate for the real numbers since the latter have some topological properties (connectedness) that are a technical inconvenience. Elements of Baire space are referred to as "reals".
Vocabulary and notation
Mathematicians use mainly the symbol R to represent the
set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
of all real numbers. Alternatively, it may be used
, the
letter "R" in
blackboard bold, which may be encoded in
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
(and HTML) as . As this set is naturally endowed with the structure of a
field, the expression ''field of real numbers'' is frequently used when its algebraic properties are under consideration.
The sets of positive real numbers and negative real numbers are often noted
and
,
respectively;
and
are also used.
[ École Normale Supérieure of ]Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
"" ("Real numbers")
, p. 6 The non-negative real numbers can be noted
but one often sees this set noted
In French mathematics, the ''positive real numbers'' and ''negative real numbers'' commonly include
zero, and these sets are noted respectively
and
In this understanding, the respective sets without zero are called strictly positive real numbers and strictly negative real numbers, and are noted
and
The notation
refers to the set of the
-tuples of elements of
(
real coordinate space), which can be identified to the
Cartesian product of copies of
It is an -
dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coord ...
al
vector space over the field of the real numbers, often called the
coordinate space of dimension ; this space may be identified to the -
dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coord ...
al
Euclidean space
Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, that is, in Euclid's ''Elements'', it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are Euclidea ...
as soon as a
Cartesian coordinate system has been chosen in the latter. In this identification, a
point of the Euclidean space is identified with the tuple of its
Cartesian coordinates.
In mathematics, ''real'' is used as an adjective, meaning that the underlying field is the field of the real numbers (or ''the real field''). For example, ''real
matrix
Matrix most commonly refers to:
* ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise
** '' The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film
** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchi ...
'', ''real polynomial'' and ''real
Lie algebra''. The word is also used as a
noun, meaning a real number (as in "the set of all reals").
Generalizations and extensions
The real numbers can be generalized and extended in several different directions:
* The complex numbers contain solutions to all polynomial equations and hence are an
algebraically closed field unlike the real numbers. However, the complex numbers are not an ordered field.
* The
affinely extended real number system adds two elements and . It is a
compact space
In mathematics, specifically general topology, compactness is a property that seeks to generalize the notion of a closed and bounded subset of Euclidean space by making precise the idea of a space having no "punctures" or "missing endpoints", i ...
. It is no longer a field, or even an additive group, but it still has a total order; moreover, it is a
complete lattice.
* The
real projective line
In geometry, a real projective line is a projective line over the real numbers. It is an extension of the usual concept of a line that has been historically introduced to solve a problem set by visual perspective: two parallel lines do not int ...
adds only one value . It is also a compact space. Again, it is no longer a field, or even an additive group. However, it allows division of a nonzero element by zero. It has
cyclic order described by a
separation relation In mathematics, a separation relation is a formal way to arrange a set of objects in an unoriented circle. It is defined as a quaternary relation ' satisfying certain axioms, which is interpreted as asserting that ''a'' and ''c'' separate ''b'' fro ...
.
* The
long real line pastes together copies of the real line plus a single point (here denotes the reversed ordering of ) to create an ordered set that is "locally" identical to the real numbers, but somehow longer; for instance, there is an order-preserving embedding of in the long real line but not in the real numbers. The long real line is the largest ordered set that is complete and locally Archimedean. As with the previous two examples, this set is no longer a field or additive group.
* Ordered fields extending the reals are the
hyperreal numbers and the
surreal numbers; both of them contain
infinitesimal and infinitely large numbers and are therefore
non-Archimedean ordered fields.
*
Self-adjoint operators on a
Hilbert space (for example, self-adjoint square complex
matrices) generalize the reals in many respects: they can be ordered (though not totally ordered), they are complete, all their
eigenvalues are real and they form a real
associative algebra.
Positive-definite operators correspond to the positive reals and
normal operators correspond to the complex numbers.
See also
*
Completeness of the real numbers
Completeness is a property of the real numbers that, intuitively, implies that there are no "gaps" (in Dedekind's terminology) or "missing points" in the real number line. This contrasts with the rational numbers, whose corresponding number l ...
*
Continued fraction
*
Definable real numbers
*
Positive real numbers
In mathematics, the set of positive real numbers, \R_ = \left\, is the subset of those real numbers that are greater than zero. The non-negative real numbers, \R_ = \left\, also include zero. Although the symbols \R_ and \R^ are ambiguously used f ...
*
Real analysis
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Vol. 2, 1989. Vol. 3, 1990.
*
* Translated from the Germa
''Grundlagen der Analysis'' 1930.
*
*
External links
*
{{Authority control
Real algebraic geometry
Elementary mathematics