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In mathematics, a rational number is a number that can be expressed as the quotient or fraction of two integers, a numerator p and a non-zero denominator q. [1] For example, is a rational number, as is every integer (e.g., ). The set of all rational numbers, also referred to as " the rationals ", [2] the field of rationals[3] or ...
Rational numbers (): Numbers that can be expressed as a ratio of an integer to a non-zero integer. [3] All integers are rational, but there are rational numbers that are not integers, such as −2/9. Real numbers (): Numbers that correspond to points along a line. They can be positive, negative, or zero. All rational numbers are real, but the ...
Integer. The integers arranged on a number line. An integer is the number zero (0), a positive natural number (1, 2, 3, . . .), or the negation of a positive natural number (−1, −2, −3, . . .). [1] The negations or additive inverses of the positive natural numbers are referred to as negative integers. [2]
The real numbers include the rational numbers, such as the integer −5 and the fraction 4 / 3. The rest of the real numbers are called irrational numbers. Some irrational numbers (as well as all the rationals) are the root of a polynomial with integer coefficients, such as the square root √2 = 1.414...; these are called algebraic numbers.
Mathematics. Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Mathematics is the queen of the sciences—and number theory is the queen of mathematics." [1]
Many other number sets are built by successively extending the set of natural numbers: the integers, by including an additive identity 0 (if not yet in) and an additive inverse −n for each nonzero natural number n; the rational numbers, by including a multiplicative inverse / for each nonzero integer n (and also the product of these inverses ...
An algebraic number is a number that is a root of a non-zero polynomial (of finite degree) in one variable with integer (or, equivalently, rational) coefficients. For example, the golden ratio, , is an algebraic number, because it is a root of the polynomial x2 − x − 1. That is, it is a value for x for which the polynomial evaluates to zero.
Algebraic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses the techniques of abstract algebra to study the integers, rational numbers, and their generalizations. Number-theoretic questions are expressed in terms of properties of algebraic objects such as algebraic number fields and their rings of integers , finite fields , and function fields .