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For example, a rational point is a point with rational coordinates (i.e., a point whose coordinates are rational numbers); a rational matrix is a matrix of rational numbers; a rational polynomial may be a polynomial with rational coefficients, although the term "polynomial over the rationals" is generally preferred, to avoid confusion between ...
In mathematics a rational number is a number that can be represented by a fraction of the form a / b , where a and b are integers and b is not zero; the set of all rational numbers is commonly represented by the symbol Q or , which stands for quotient.
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 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 of 2).
In the case of the rational numbers this means that any number has two irreducible fractions, related by a change of sign of both numerator and denominator; this ambiguity can be removed by requiring the denominator to be positive. In the case of rational functions the denominator could similarly be required to be a monic polynomial. [8]
The real numbers have various lattice-theoretic properties that are absent in the complex numbers. Also, the real numbers form an ordered field, in which sums and products of positive numbers are also positive. Moreover, the ordering of the real numbers is total, and the real numbers have the least upper bound property:
An algebraic number is any complex number that is a solution to some polynomial equation () = with rational coefficients; for example, every solution of + (/) + = (say) is an algebraic number. Fields of algebraic numbers are also called algebraic number fields , or shortly number fields .
Dirichlet function: is an indicator function that matches 1 to rational numbers and 0 to irrationals. It is nowhere continuous. Thomae's function: is a function that is continuous at all irrational numbers and discontinuous at all rational numbers. It is also a modification of Dirichlet function and sometimes called Riemann function.
Faltings's theorem is a result in arithmetic geometry, according to which a curve of genus greater than 1 over the field of rational numbers has only finitely many rational points. This was conjectured in 1922 by Louis Mordell, [1] and known as the Mordell conjecture until its 1983 proof by Gerd Faltings. [2]