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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 −∞.
An axiomatic definition of the real numbers consists of defining them as the elements of a complete ordered field. [2] [3] [4] This means the following: The real numbers form a set, commonly denoted , containing two distinguished elements denoted 0 and 1, and on which are defined two binary operations and one binary relation; the operations are called addition and multiplication of real ...
For example, any irrational number x, such as x = √ 2, is a "gap" in the rationals Q in the sense that it is a real number that can be approximated arbitrarily closely by rational numbers p/q, in the sense that distance of x and p/q given by the absolute value | x − p/q | is as small as desired. The following table lists some examples of ...
Computable number: A real number whose digits can be computed by some algorithm. Period: A number which can be computed as the integral of some algebraic function over an algebraic domain. Definable number: A real number that can be defined uniquely using a first-order formula with one free variable in the language of set theory.
"A base is a natural number B whose powers (B multiplied by itself some number of times) are specially designated within a numerical system." [1]: 38 The term is not equivalent to radix, as it applies to all numerical notation systems (not just positional ones with a radix) and most systems of spoken numbers. [1]
A floating-point system can be used to represent, with a fixed number of digits, numbers of very different orders of magnitude — such as the number of meters between galaxies or between protons in an atom. For this reason, floating-point arithmetic is often used to allow very small and very large real numbers that require fast processing times.
Numeral systems are sometimes called number systems, but that name is ambiguous, as it could refer to different systems of numbers, such as the system of real numbers, the system of complex numbers, various hypercomplex number systems, the system of p-adic numbers, etc. Such systems are, however, not the topic of this article.
This means that the integer part of the natural logarithm of a number in base e counts the number of digits before the separating point in that number, minus one. The base e is the most economical choice of radix β > 1, [ 4 ] where the radix economy is measured as the product of the radix and the length of the string of symbols needed to ...