Number
{{dablink|For other uses of "number", see
numbers.}}A
number is an
abstract object,
tokens of which are
symbols used in
counting and
measuring. A symbol which represents a number is called a
numeral, but in common usage the word number is used for both the abstract object and the symbol. In addition to their use in counting and measuring, numerals are often used for labels (
telephone numbers), for ordering (
serial numbers), and for codes (
ISBNs). In
mathematics, the definition of number has been extended over the years to include such numbers as
zero,
negative numbers,
rational numbers,
irrational numbers, and
complex numbers. As a result, there is no one encompassing definition of number and the concept of number is open for further development.Certain procedures which input one or more numbers and output a number are called numerical
operations.
Unary operations input a single number and output a single number. For example, the successor operation adds one to an integer: the successor of 4 is 5. More common are
binary operations which input two numbers and output a single number. Examples of binary operations include
addition,
subtraction,
multiplication,
division, and
exponentiation. The study of numerical operations is called
arithmetic.The branch of
mathematics that studies structures of number systems such as
groups,
rings and
fields is called
abstract algebra.
Types of numbers
Numbers can be classified into
sets, called
number systems. (For different methods of expressing numbers with symbols, such as the
Roman numerals, see
numeral systems.)
Natural numbers
The most familiar numbers are the
natural numbers or counting numbers: one, two, three, ... . In the
base ten number system, in almost universal use today for arithmetic operations, the symbols for natural numbers are written using ten
digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. In this base ten system, the rightmost digit of a natural number has a place value of one, and every other digit has a place value ten times that of the place value of the digit to its right. The symbol for the set of all natural numbers is
N, also written (Blackboard bold|
N
.)In
set theory, which is capable of acting as an axiomatic foundation for modern mathematics, natural numbers can be represented by classes of equivalent sets. For instance, the number 3 can be represented as the class of all sets that have exactly three elements. Alternatively, in
Peano Arithmetic, the number 3 is represented as sss0, where s is the "successor" function. Many different representations are possible; all that is needed to formally represent 3 is to inscribe a certain symbol or pattern of symbols 3 times.
Z .">
IntegersNegative numbers are numbers that are less than zero. They are the opposite of positive numbers. For example, if a positive number indicates a bank deposit, then a negative number indicates a withdrawal of the same amount. Negative numbers are usually written by writing a negative sign (also called a minus sign) in front of the number they are the opposite of. Thus the opposite of 7 is written −7. When the set of negative numbers is combined with the natural numbers and zero, the result is the set of integer numbers, also called integers, Z' (German Zahl, plural Zahlen''), also written (Blackboard bold|
Z
.)Rational numbers
A
rational number is a number that can be expressed as a
fraction with an integer
numerator and a non-zero natural number
denominator. The fraction
m/
n or
represents
m equal parts, where
n equal parts of that size make up one whole. Two different fractions may correspond to the same rational number; for example 1/2 and 2/4 are equal, that is:
If the
absolute value of
m is greater than
n, then the absolute value of the fraction is greater than 1. Fractions can be greater than, less than, or equal to 1 and can also be positive, negative, or zero. The set of all rational numbers includes the integers, since every integer can be written as a fraction with denominator 1. For example −7 can be written −7/1. The symbol for the rational numbers is
Q (for
quotient), also written (Blackboard bold|
Q
.)
Real numbers
The
real numbers include all of the measuring numbers. Real numbers are usually written using
decimal numerals, in which a decimal point is placed to the right of the digit with place value one. Each digit to the right of the decimal point has a place value one-tenth of the place value of the digit to its left. Thus
represents 1 hundred, 2 tens, 3 ones, 4 tenths, 5 hundredths, and 6 thousandths. In saying the number, the decimal is read "point", thus: "one two three point four five six". In the US and UK and a number of other countries, the decimal point is represented by a
period, whereas in continental Europe and certain other countries the decimal point is represented by a
comma. Zero is often written as 0.0 when necessary to indicate that it is to be treated as a real number rather than as an integer. Negative real numbers are written with a preceding
minus sign:
Every rational number is also a real number. To write a fraction as a decimal, divide the numerator by the denominator. It is not the case, however, that every real number is rational. If a real number cannot be written as a fraction of two integers, it is called
irrational. A decimal that can be written as a fraction either ends (terminates) or forever repeats, because it is the answer to a problem in division. Thus the real number 0.5 can be written as 1/2 and the real number 0.333... (forever repeating threes) can be written as 1/3. On the other hand, the real number π (
pi), the ratio of the
circumference of any circle to its
diameter, is
&(i; = 3.14159265358979...
.
Since the decimal neither ends nor forever repeats, it cannot be written as a fraction, and is an example of an irrational number. Other irrational numbers include
(the
square root of 2, that is, the positive number whose square is 2).Just as fractions can be written in more than one way, so too can decimals. For example, if we multiply both sides of the equation
by three, we discover that
Thus 1.0 and
0.999... are two different decimal numerals representing the natural number 1. There are infinitely many other ways of representing the number 1, for example 2/2, 3/3, 1.00, 1.000, and so on.Every real number is either rational or irrational. Every real number corresponds to a point on the
number line. The real numbers also have an important but highly technical property called the
least upper bound property. The symbol for the real numbers is
R or
R
. When a real number represents a
measurement, there is always a
margin of error. This is often indicated by
rounding or
truncating a decimal, so that digits that suggest a greater accuracy than the measurement itself are removed. The remaining digits are called
significant digits. For example, measurements with a ruler can seldom be made without a margin of error of at least 0.01 meters. If the sides of a
rectangle are measured as 1.23 meters and 4.56 meters, then multiplication gives an area for the rectangle of 5.6088 square meters. Since only the first two digits after the decimal place are significant, this is usually rounded to 5.61.
In
abstract algebra, the real numbers are up to isomorphism uniquely characterized by being the only
complete ordered field. They are not, however, an
algebraically closed field.
Complex numbers
Moving to a greater level of abstraction, the real numbers can be extended to the
complex numbers. This set of numbers arose, historically, from the question of whether a negative number can have a
square root. This led to the invention of a new number: the square root of negative one, denoted by
i, a symbol assigned by
Leonhard Euler, and called the
imaginary unit. The complex numbers consist of all numbers of the form
where
a and
b are real numbers. In the expression
a +
bi, the real number
a is called the
real part and
bi is called the
imaginary part. If the real part of a complex number is zero, then the number is called an
imaginary number or is referred to as
purely imaginary; if the imaginary part is zero, then the number is a real number. Thus the real numbers are a
subset of the complex numbers. If the real and imaginary parts of a complex number are both integers, then the number is called a
Gaussian integer. The symbol for the complex numbers is
C or
C
.In
abstract algebra, the complex numbers are an example of an
algebraically closed field, meaning that every
polynomial with complex
coefficients can be
factored into linear factors. Like the real number system, the complex number system is a
field and is
complete, but unlike the real numbers it is not
ordered. That is, there is no meaning in saying that
i is greater than 1, nor is there any meaning in saying that that
i is less than 1. In technical terms, the complex numbers lack the
trichotomy property.Complex numbers correspond to points on the
complex plane, sometimes called the Argand plane.Each of the number systems mentioned above is a
proper subset of the next number system. Symbolically,
N ⊂
Z ⊂
Q ⊂
R ⊂
C.
Computable numbers
Moving to problems of computation, the
computable numbers are determined in the set of the real numbers. The computable numbers, also known as the
recursive numbers or the
computable reals, are the
real numbers that can be computed to within any desired precision by a finite, terminating
algorithm. Equivalent definitions can be given using
μ-recursive functions,
Turing machines or
λ-calculus as the formal representation of algorithms. The computable numbers form a
real closed field and can be used in the place of real numbers for many, but not all, mathematical purposes.
Other types
Hyperreal and hypercomplex numbers are used in
non-standard analysis. The hyperreals, or
nonstandard reals (usually denoted as *
R), denote an
ordered field which is a proper
extension of the ordered field of
real numbers
R and which satisfies the
transfer principle. This principle allows true
first order statements about
R to be reinterpreted as true first order statements about *
R.
Superreal and
surreal numbers extend the real numbers by adding infinitesimally small numbers and infinitely large numbers, but still form
fields.The idea behind
p-adic numbers is this:While real numbers may have infinitely long expansions to the right of the decimal point, these numbers allow for infinitely long expansions to the left. The number system which results depends on what
base is used for the digits: any base is possible, but a system with the best mathematical properties is obtained when the base is a
prime number.For dealing with infinite collections, the natural numbers have been generalized to the
ordinal numbers and to the
cardinal numbers. The former gives the ordering of the collection, while the latter gives its size. For the finite set, the ordinal and cardinal numbers are equivalent, but they differ in the infinite case.There are also other sets of numbers with specialized uses. Some are subsets of the complex numbers. For example,
algebraic numbers are the roots of
polynomials with rational
coefficients. Complex numbers that are not algebraic are called
transcendental numbers.Sets of numbers that are not subsets of the complex numbers are sometimes called
hypercomplex numbers. They include the
quaternions
H, invented by Sir
William Rowan Hamilton, in which multiplication is not
commutative, and the
octonions, in which multiplication is not
associative. Elements of
function fields of non-zero
characteristic behave in some ways like numbers and are often regarded as numbers by number theorists.In addition, various specific kinds of numbers are studied in sets of
natural and
integer numbers.An
even number is an integer that is "evenly divisible" by 2, i.e., divisible by 2 without remainder; an
odd number is an integer that is not evenly divisible by 2. (The old-fashioned term "evenly divisible" is now almost always shortened to "
divisible".)A formal definition of an odd number is that it is an integer of the form
n = 2
k + 1, where
k is an integer. An even number has the form
n = 2
k where
k is an
integer.A
perfect number is defined as a
positive integer which is the sum of its proper positive
divisors, that is, the sum of the positive divisors not including the number itself. Equivalently, a perfect number is a number that is half the sum of all of its positive divisors, or
σ(
n) = 2
n. The first perfect number is
6, because 1, 2, and 3 are its proper positive divisors and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6. The next perfect number is
28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14. The next perfect numbers are
496 and
8128 {{OEIS|id=A000396}}. These first four perfect numbers were the only ones known to early
Greek mathematics.A
figurate number is a number that can be represented as a regular and discrete
geometric pattern (e.g. dots). If the pattern is
polytopic, the figurate is labeled a
polytopic number, and may be a
polygonal number or a
polyhedral number. Polytopic numbers for r = 2, 3, and 4 are:
Numerals
Numbers should be distinguished from
numerals, the symbols used to represent numbers. Boyer showed that Egyptians created the first ciphered numeral system. Greeks followed by mapping their counting numbers onto Ionian and Doric alpabets. The number five can be represented by both the base ten numeral '5', by the
Roman numeral 'V' and ciphered letters. Notations used to represent numbers are discussed in the article
numeral systems. An important development in the history of numerals was the development of a positional system, like modern decimals, which can represent very large numbers. The Roman numerals require extra symbols for larger numbers.
History
History of integers
The first use of numbers
It is speculated that the first known use of numbers dates back to around 30,000 BC. Bones and other artifacts have been discovered with marks cut into them which many consider to be
tally marks. The uses of these tally marks may have been for counting elapsed time, such as numbers of days, or keeping records of quantities, such as of animals.Tallying systems have no concept of place-value (such as in the currently used decimal notation), which limit its representation of large numbers and as such is often considered that this is the first kind of abstract system that would be used, and could be considered a Numeral System.The first known system with place-value was the
Mesopotamian base 60 system (ca. 3400 BC) and the earliest known base 10 system dates to 3100 BC in
Egypt.
weblink History of zero
{{further|
History of zero}}The use of zero as a number should be distinguished from its use as a placeholder numeral in
place-value systems. Many ancient texts used zero. Babylonians and Egyptian texts used it. Egyptians used the word nfr to denote zero balance in double entry accounting entries. Indian texts used a
Sanskrit word
Shunya to refer to the concept of
void; in mathematics texts this word would often be used to refer to the number zero.
weblink. In a similar vein,
Pāṇini (5th century BC) used the null (zero) operator (ie a
lambda production) in the
Ashtadhyayi, his
algebraic grammar for the
Sanskrit language. (also see
Pingala)Records show that the
Ancient Greeks seemed unsure about the status of zero as a number: they asked themselves "how can 'nothing' be something?" leading to interesting
philosophical and, by the Medieval period, religious arguments about the nature and existence of zero and the
vacuum. The
paradoxes of
Zeno of Elea depend in large part on the uncertain interpretation of zero. (The ancient Greeks even questioned if
1 was a number.)The late
Olmec people of south-central
Mexico began to use a true zero (a shell glyph) in the New World possibly by the 4th century BC but certainly by 40 BC, which became an integral part of
Maya numerals and the
Maya calendar. Mayan arithmetic used base 4 and base 5 written as base 20. Sanchez in 1961 reported a base 4, base 5 'finger' abacus. By 130,
Ptolemy, influenced by
Hipparchus and the Babylonians, was using a symbol for zero (a small circle with a long overbar) within a sexagesimal numeral system otherwise using alphabetic
Greek numerals. Because it was used alone, not as just a placeholder, this
Hellenistic zero was the first
documented use of a true zero in the Old World. In later
Byzantine manuscripts of his
Syntaxis Mathematica (
Almagest), the Hellenistic zero had morphed into the
Greek letter omicron (otherwise meaning 70).Another true zero was used in tables alongside
Roman numerals by 525 (first known use by
Dionysius Exiguus), but as a word,
nulla meaning
nothing, not as a symbol. When division produced zero as a remainder,
nihil, also meaning
nothing, was used. These medieval zeros were used by all future medieval
computists (calculators of
Easter). An isolated use of their initial, N, was used in a table of Roman numerals by
Bede or a colleague about 725, a true zero symbol.An early documented use of the zero by
Brahmagupta (in the
Brahmasphutasiddhanta) dates to 628. He treated zero as a number and discussed operations involving it, including
division. By this time (7th century) the concept had clearly reached
Cambodia, and documentation shows the idea later spreading to
China and the
Islamic world.
History of negative numbers
{{further|
First usage of negative numbers}}The abstract concept of negative numbers was recognised as early as 100 BC - 50 BC. The
Chinese ”Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art” (
Jiu-zhang Suanshu) contains methods for finding the areas of figures; red rods were used to denote positive
coefficients, black for negative. This is the earliest known mention of negative numbers in the East; the first reference in a western work was in the 3rd century in
Greece.
Diophantus referred to the equation equivalent to
4x + 20 = 0
(the solution would be negative) in
Arithmetica, saying that the equation gave an absurd result.During the 600s, negative numbers were in use in
India to represent debts.
Diophantus’ previous reference was discussed more explicitly by Indian mathematician
Brahmagupta, in
Brahma-Sphuta-Siddhanta 628, who used negative numbers to produce the general form
quadratic formula that remains in use today. However, in the 12th century in India,
Bhaskara gives negative roots for quadratic equations but says the negative value "is in this case not to be taken, for it is inadequate; people do not approve of negative roots."
European mathematicians, for the most part, resisted the concept of negative numbers until the 17th century, although
Fibonacci allowed negative solutions in financial problems where they could be interpreted as debits (chapter 13 of
Liber Abaci, 1202) and later as losses (in
Flos). At the same time, the
Chinese were indicating negative numbers by drawing a diagonal stroke through the right-most nonzero digit of the corresponding positive number's numeral{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. The first use of negative numbers in a European work was by
Chuquet during the 15th century. He used them as
exponents, but referred to them as “absurd numbers”.As recently as the 18th century, the
Swiss mathematician
Leonhard Euler believed that negative numbers were greater than
infinity{{Fact|date=February 2007}}, and it was common practice to ignore any negative results returned by equations on the assumption that they were meaningless, just as
René Descartes did with negative solutions in a
cartesian coordinate system.
History of rational, irrational, and real numbers
{{further|
History of irrational numbers and
History of pi}}
History of rational numbers
It is likely that the concept of fractional numbers dates to
prehistoric times. Even the
Ancient Egyptians wrote math texts describing how to convert general
fractions into their
special notation. The
RMP 2/n table and the
Kahun Papyrus wrote out unit fraction series by using least common multiples. Classical Greek and Indian mathematicians made studies of the theory of rational numbers, as part of the general study of
number theory. The best known of these is
Euclid's Elements, dating to roughly 300 BC. Of the Indian texts, the most relevant is the
Sthananga Sutra, which also covers number theory as part of a general study of mathematics.The concept of
decimal fractions is closely linked with decimal place value notation; the two seem to have developed in tandem. For example, it is common for the Jain math sutras to include calculations of decimal-fraction approximations to
pi or the
square root of two. Similarly, Babylonian math texts had always used sexagesimal fractions with great frequency.
History of irrational numbers
The earliest known use of irrational numbers was in the
Indian Sulba Sutras composed between 800-500 BC. {{fact|date=April 2007}} The first existence proofs of irrational numbers is usually attributed to
Pythagoras, more specifically to the
Pythagorean Hippasus of Metapontum, who produced a (most likely geometrical) proof of the irrationality of the
square root of 2. The story goes that Hippasus discovered irrational numbers when trying to represent the square root of 2 as a fraction. However
Pythagoras believed in the absoluteness of numbers, and could not accept the existence of irrational numbers. He could not disprove their existence through logic, but his beliefs would not accept the existence of irrational numbers and so he sentenced Hippasus to death by drowning.The sixteenth century saw the final acceptance by Europeans of
negative, integral and
fractional numbers. The seventeenth century saw decimal fractions with the modern notation quite generally used by mathematicians. But it was not until the nineteenth century that the irrationals were separated into algebraic and transcendental parts, and a scientific study of theory of irrationals was taken once more. It had remained almost dormant since
Euclid. The year 1872 saw the publication of the theories of
Karl Weierstrass (by his pupil
Kossak),
Heine (
Crelle, 74),
Georg Cantor (Annalen, 5), and
Richard Dedekind.
Méray had taken in 1869 the same point of departure as
Heine, but the theory is generally referred to the year 1872. Weierstrass's method has been completely set forth by
Salvatore Pincherle (1880), and Dedekind's has received additional prominence through the author's later work (1888) and the recent endorsement by
Paul Tannery (1894). Weierstrass, Cantor, and Heine base their theories on infinite series, while Dedekind founds his on the idea of a
cut (Schnitt) in the system of
real numbers, separating all
rational numbers into two groups having certain characteristic properties. The subject has received later contributions at the hands of Weierstrass,
Kronecker (Crelle, 101), and Méray.
Continued fractions, closely related to irrational numbers (and due to Cataldi, 1613), received attention at the hands of
Euler, and at the opening of the nineteenth century were brought into prominence through the writings of
Joseph Louis Lagrange. Other noteworthy contributions have been made by
Druckenmüller (1837),
Kunze (1857),
Lemke (1870), and
Günther (1872).
Ramus (1855) first connected the subject with
determinants, resulting, with the subsequent contributions of Heine,
Möbius, and
Günther, in the theory of Kettenbruchdeterminanten. Dirichlet also added to the general theory, as have numerous contributors to the applications of the subject.
Transcendental numbers and reals
The first results concerning transcendental numbers were
Lambert's 1761 proof that π cannot be rational, and also that
en is irrational if
n is rational (unless
n = 0). (The constant
e was first referred to in
Napier's 1618 work on
logarithms.)
Legendre extended this proof to showed that π is not the square root of a rational number. The search for roots of
quintic and higher degree equations was an important development, the
Abel–Ruffini theorem (
Ruffini 1799,
Abel 1824) showed that they could not be solved by
radicals (formula involving only arithmetical operations and roots). Hence it was necessary to consider the wider set of
algebraic numbers (all solutions to polynomial equations).
Galois (1832) linked polynomial equations to
group theory giving rise to the field of
Galois theory.Even the set of algebraic numbers was not sufficient and the full set of real number includes
transcendental numbers. The existence of which was first established by
Liouville (1844, 1851).
Hermite proved in 1873 that
e is transcendental and
Lindemann proved in 1882 that π is transcendental. Finally
Cantor shows that the set of all
real numbers is
uncountably infinite but the set of all
algebraic numbers is
countably infinite, so there is an uncountably infinite number of transcendental numbers.
Infinity
{{further|
History of infinity}}The earliest known conception of mathematical
infinity appears in the
Yajur Veda - an ancient script in India, which at one point states "if you remove a part from infinity or add a part to infinity, still what remains is infinity". Infinity was a popular topic of philosophical study among the
Jain mathematicians circa 400 BC. They distinguished between five types of infinity: infinite in one and two directions, infinite in area, infinite everywhere, and infinite perpetually. In the West, the traditional notion of mathematical infinity was defined by
Aristotle, who distinguished between
actual infinity and
potential infinity; the general consensus being that only the latter had true value.
Galileo's
Two New Sciences discussed the idea of
one-to-one correspondences between infinite sets. But the next major advance in the theory was made by
Georg Cantor; in 1895 he published a book about his new
set theory, introducing, among other things,
transfinite numbers and formulating the
continuum hypothesis. This was the first mathematical model that represented infinity by numbers and gave rules for operating with these infinite numbers.In the 1960s,
Abraham Robinson showed how infinitely large and infinitesimal numbers can be rigorously defined and used to develop the field of nonstandard analysis. The system of
hyperreal numbers represents a rigorous method of treating the ideas about
infinite and
infinitesimal numbers that had been used casually by mathematicians, scientists, and engineers ever since the invention of
calculus by
Newton and
Leibniz.A modern geometrical version of infinity is given by
projective geometry, which introduces "ideal points at infinity," one for each spatial direction. Each family of parallel lines in a given direction is postulated to converge to the corresponding ideal point. This is closely related to the idea of vanishing points in
perspective drawing.
Complex numbers
{{further|
History of complex numbers}}The earliest fleeting reference to square roots of negative numbers occurred in the work of the mathematician and inventor
Heron of Alexandria in the 1st century AD, when he considered the volume of an impossible
frustum of a
pyramid. They became more prominent when in the 16th century closed formulas for the roots of third and fourth degree polynomials were discovered by Italian mathematicians (see
Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia,
Gerolamo Cardano). It was soon realized that these formulas, even if one was only interested in real solutions, sometimes required the manipulation of square roots of negative numbers. This was doubly unsettling since they did not even consider negative numbers to be on firm ground at the time. The term "imaginary" for these quantities was coined by
René Descartes in 1637 and was meant to be derogatory (see
imaginary number for a discussion of the "reality" of complex numbers). A further source of confusion was that the equation
(&nbs(;( √-1&nbs(;) )arg∈-→(:-4(x;font-size:12(x;">2 =√-1√-1=-1
seemed to be capriciously inconsistent with the algebraic identity
which is valid for positive real numbers
a and
b, and which was also used in complex number calculations with one of
a,
b positive and the other negative. The incorrect use of this identity, and the related identity
in the case when both
a and
b are negative even bedeviled
Euler. This difficulty eventually led him to the convention of using the special symbol
i in place of √−1 to guard against this mistake.The 18th century saw the labors of
Abraham de Moivre and
Leonhard Euler. To De Moivre is due (1730) the well-known formula which bears his name,
de Moivre's formula:
(cos thη + is∈ thη)arg∈-→(:-4(x;font-size:12(x;">n = cos n thη + is∈ n thη
and to Euler (1748)
Euler's formula of
complex analysis:
cos thη + is∈ thη = e arg∈-→(:-4(x;font-size:12(x;">ithη .
The existence of complex numbers was not completely accepted until the geometrical interpretation had been described by
Caspar Wessel in 1799; it was rediscovered several years later and popularized by
Carl Friedrich Gauss, and as a result the theory of complex numbers received a notable expansion. The idea of the graphic representation of complex numbers had appeared, however, as early as 1685, in
Wallis's
De Algebra tractatus. Also in 1799, Gauss provided the first generally accepted proof of the
fundamental theorem of algebra, showing that every polynomial over the complex numbers has a full set of solutions in that realm. The general acceptance of the theory of complex numbers is not a little due to the labors of
Augustin Louis Cauchy and
Niels Henrik Abel, and especially the latter, who was the first to boldly use complex numbers with a success that is well known.
Gauss studied
complex numbers of the form a +
bi, where
a and
b are integral, or rational (and
i is one of the two roots of
x2 + 1 = 0). His student,
Ferdinand Eisenstein, studied the type
a +
bω, where
ω is a complex root of
x3 − 1 = 0. Other such classes (called
cyclotomic fields) of complex numbers are derived from the
roots of unity xk − 1 = 0 for higher values of
k. This generalization is largely due to
Ernst Kummer, who also invented
ideal numbers, which were expressed as geometrical entities by
Felix Klein in 1893. The general theory of fields was created by
Évariste Galois, who studied the fields generated by the roots of any polynomial equation
F(
x) = 0.In 1850
Victor Alexandre Puiseux took the key step of distinguishing between poles and branch points, and introduced the concept of
essential singular points; this would eventually lead to the concept of the
extended complex plane.
Prime numbers
Prime numbers have been studied throughout recorded history. Euclid devoted one book of the
Elements to the theory of primes; in it he proved the infinitude of the primes and the
fundamental theorem of arithmetic, and presented the
Euclidean algorithm for finding the
greatest common divisor of two numbers.In 240 BC,
Eratosthenes used the
Sieve of Eratosthenes to quickly isolate prime numbers. But most further development of the theory of primes in Europe dates to the
Renaissance and later eras.In 1796,
Adrien-Marie Legendre conjectured the
prime number theorem, describing the asymptotic distribution of primes. Other results concerning the distribution of the primes include Euler's proof that the sum of the reciprocals of the primes diverges, and the
Goldbach conjecture which claims that any sufficiently large even number is the sum of two primes. Yet another conjecture related to the distribution of prime numbers is the
Riemann hypothesis, formulated by
Bernhard Riemann in 1859. The prime number theorem was finally proved by
Jacques Hadamard and
Charles de la Vallée-Poussin in 1896. The conjectures of Goldbach and Riemann yet remain to be proved or refuted.
Word alternatives
Some numbers traditionally have alternative words to express them, including the following:
See also
References
{{wiktionarypar|number}}
- Tobias Dantzig, Number, the language of science; a critical survey written for the cultured non-mathematician, New York, The Macmillan company, 1930.
- Erich Friedman, What's special about this number?
- Steven Galovich, Introduction to Mathematical Structures, Harcourt Brace Javanovich, 23 January 1989, ISBN 0-15-543468-3.
- Paul Halmos, Naive Set Theory, Springer, 1974, ISBN 0-387-90092-6.
- Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times, Oxford University Press, 1972.
- Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, Principia Mathematica to 56, Cambridge University Press, 1910.
- George I. Sanchez, Arithmetic in Maya,Austin-Texas, 1961.
- What's a Number? at cut-the-knot
External links
{{Commons|Numbers}}
{{Number systems}}{{Large numbers}}
عددƏdədসংখ্যা(zh-min-nan:Sò͘-ba̍k)(be-x-old:Лік)
NombreČísloTalZahlArvΑριθμόςNúmeroNombroZenbakiعددTalNombreGetalÀireamhNúmero수 (수학)अंकBrojBilanganNumeroTalaNumeroמספרಸಂಖ್ಯೆრიცხვიHejmarNumerusSkaitlisSkaičiusSzámБројIsaസംഖ്യNomborနံပါတ်TlapōhualliGetal数TallNombreLiczbaNúmeroNumărYupayЧислоNumberČíslo (matematika)ŠteviloБројBrojWilanganLukuTal (matematik)எண்సంఖ్యจำนวนSố (toán học)SayıЧислоعددצאלNọ́mbà(bat-smg:Skaitlios)
数 (数学)
(...as imported from WP)
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