Positive number

Sign of a number

Numbers from various number systems, like integers, rationals, complex numbers, quaternions, octonions, ... may have multiple attributes, that fix certain properties of a number. A number system that bears the structure of an ordered ring contains a unique number that when added with any number leaves the latter unchanged. This unique number is known as the system's additive identity element. For example, the integers has the structure of an ordered ring. This number is generally denoted as 0. Because of the total order in this ring, there are numbers greater than zero, called the positive numbers. Another property required for a ring to be ordered is that, for each positive number, there exists a unique corresponding number less than 0 whose sum with the original positive number is 0. These numbers less than 0 are called the negative numbers. The numbers in each such pair are their respective additive inverses. This attribute of a number, being exclusively either zero(0), positive(+), or negative(−), is called its sign, and is often encoded to the real numbers 0, 1, and −1, respectively (similar to the way the sign function is defined). Since rational and real numbers are also ordered rings (in fact ordered fields), the sign attribute also applies to these number systems.