Number

For other uses, see Number (disambiguation).

1+i3

i
e
2

-7/11 -1
-2

1.333...
0
1

During the 19th century, mathematicians began to develop many dierent abstractions which share certain
properties of numbers and may be seen as extending the
concept. Among the rst were the hypercomplex numbers, which consist of various extensions or modications
of the complex number system. Today, number systems
are considered important special examples of much more
general categories such as rings and elds, and the application of the term number is a matter of convention,
without fundamental signicance.[4]

1 Numerals
Main article: Numeral system

Subsets of the complex numbers.

Numbers should be distinguished from numerals, the

symbols used to represent numbers. Boyer showed that
Egyptians created the rst ciphered numeral system.
Greeks followed by mapping their counting numbers onto
Ionian and Doric alphabets. The number ve can be represented by digit 5 or by the Roman numeral "". 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 have many advantages, such as representing large numbers with only a few
symbols. The Roman numerals require extra symbols for
larger numbers.

A number is a mathematical object used to count,

measure, and label. The original examples are the natural
numbers 1, 2, 3, and so forth. A notational symbol that
represents a number is called a numeral. In addition to
their use in counting and measuring, numerals are often
used for labels (as with telephone numbers), for ordering
(as with serial numbers), and for codes (as with ISBNs).
In common usage, the term number may refer to a symbol, a word, or a mathematical abstraction.

In mathematics, the notion of number has been extended

over the centuries to include 0, negative numbers, rational

numbers such as 12 and 23 , real numbers such as 2

and , complex
numbers, which extend the real numbers
by including 1 , and sometimes additional objects.
Calculations with numbers are done with arithmetical op2 Main classication
erations, the most familiar being addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, and exponentiation. Their study
or usage is called arithmetic. The same term may also Number system redirects here. For systems for
refer to number theory, the study of the properties of the expressing numbers, see Numeral system.
natural numbers.
See also: List of types of numbers
Besides their practical uses, numbers have cultural significance throughout the world.[1][2] For example, in Western society the number 13 is regarded as unlucky, and
a million" may signify a lot.[1] Though it is now regarded as pseudoscience, numerology, or the belief in a
mystical signicance of numbers, permeated ancient and
medieval thought.[3] Numerology heavily inuenced the
development of Greek mathematics, stimulating the investigation of many problems in number theory which are
still of interest today.[3]

Dierent types of numbers have many dierent uses.

Numbers can be classied into sets, called number systems, such as the natural numbers and the real numbers.
The same number can be written in many dierent ways.
For dierent methods of expressing numbers with symbols, such as the Roman numerals, see numeral systems.

2.1

Natural numbers

Main article: Natural number

The most familiar numbers are the natural numbers or

5
4
3

MAIN CLASSIFICATION

2.2 Integers
Main article: Integer
The negative of a positive integer is dened as a number
that produces 0 when it is added to the corresponding positive integer. Negative numbers are usually written with a
negative sign (a minus sign). As an example, the negative
of 7 is written 7, and 7 + (7) = 0. When the set of negative numbers is combined with the set of natural numbers
(including 0), the result is dened as the set of integers,
Z also written Z . Here the letter Z comes from German
Zahl, meaning number. The set of integers forms a ring
with the operations addition and multiplication.[8]
The natural numbers form a subset of the integers. As
there is no common standard for the inclusion or not of
zero in the natural numbers, the natural numbers without zero are commonly referred to as positive integers,
and the natural numbers with zero are referred to as nonnegative integers.

2
1

The natural numbers, starting with 1

counting numbers: 1, 2, 3, and so on. Traditionally, the

sequence of natural numbers started with 1 (0 was not
even considered a number for the Ancient Greeks.) However, in the 19th century, set theorists and other mathematicians started including 0 (cardinality of the empty
set, i.e. 0 elements, where 0 is thus the smallest cardinal
number) in the set of natural numbers.[5][6] Today, different mathematicians use the term to describe both sets,
including 0 or not. The mathematical symbol for the set
of all natural numbers is N, also written N , and sometimes N0 or N1 when it is necessary to indicate whether
the set should start with 0 or 1, respectively.
In the base 10 numeral system, in almost universal use today for mathematical 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 10 system, the rightmost digit of
a natural number has a place value of 1, and every other
digit has a place value ten times that of the place value of
the digit to its right.

2.3 Rational numbers

Main article: Rational number
A rational number is a number that can be expressed as a
fraction with an integer numerator and a positive integer
denominator. Negative denominators are allowed, but
are commonly avoided, as every rational number is equal
to a fraction with positive denominator. Fractions are
written as two integers, the numerator and the denominator, with a dividing bar between them. The fraction m/n
represents m parts of a whole divided into n equal parts.
Two dierent fractions may correspond to the same rational number; for example 1/2 and 2/4 are equal, that
is:
1
2
= .
2
4

If the absolute value of m is greater than n (supposed to be

positive), 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 0. The set of all
rational numbers includes the integers, since every integer can be written as a fraction with denominator 1. For
In set theory, which is capable of acting as an axiomatic example 7 can be written 7/1. The symbol for the rafoundation for modern mathematics,[7] natural numbers tional numbers is Q (for quotient), also written Q .
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 2.4 Real numbers
Peano Arithmetic, the number 3 is represented as sss0,
where s is the successor function (i.e., 3 is the third suc- Main article: Real number
cessor of 0). Many dierent representations are possible;
all that is needed to formally represent 3 is to inscribe a The real numbers include all the measuring numbers. The
symbol for the real numbers is R, also written as R . Real
certain symbol or pattern of symbols three times.

2.5

Complex numbers

numbers are usually represented by using decimal numerals, in which a decimal point is placed to the right of the
digit with place value 1. 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. For example, 123.456 represents
123456/1000, or, in words, one hundred, two tens, three
ones, four tenths, ve hundredths, and six thousandths.
A nite decimal representation allows us to represent exactly only the integers and those rational numbers whose
denominators have only prime factors which are factors
of ten. Thus one half is 0.5, one fth is 0.2, one tenth is
0.1, and one ftieth is 0.02. To represent the rest of the
real numbers requires an innite sequence of digits after
the decimal point. Since it impossible to write innitely
many digits, real numbers are commonly represented by
rounding or truncating this sequence, or by establishing
a pattern, such as 0.333..., with an ellipsis to indicate
that the pattern continues. Thus 123.456 is an approximation of any real number between 1234555/10000 and
1234565/10000 (rounding) or any real number between
123456/1000 and 123457/1000 (truncation). Negative
real numbers are written with a preceding minus sign:
123.456.
Every rational number is also a real number. It is not
the case, however, that every real number is rational. A
real number, which is not rational, is called irrational. A
decimal represents a rational number if and only if has a
nite number of digits or eventually repeats for ever, after
any initial nite string digits. For example, 1/2 = 0.5 and
1/3 = 0.333... (forever repeating 3s, otherwise written
0.3). On the other hand, the real number , the ratio of
the circumference of any circle to its diameter, is

= 3.14159265358979 . . .
Since the decimal neither ends nor eventually repeats forever (see: proof that pi is irrational) it cannot be written
as a fraction, and is an example of an irrational number.
Other irrational numbers include

2 = 1.41421356237 . . .
(the square root of 2, that is, the positive number whose
square is 2).

3
rounding or truncating a decimal, so that digits that suggest a greater accuracy than the measurement itself are removed. The remaining digits are called signicant digits.
For example, measurements with a ruler can seldom be
made without a margin of error of at least 0.001 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 rst
two digits after the decimal place are signicant, this is
usually rounded to 5.61.
In abstract algebra, it can be shown that any complete
ordered eld is isomorphic to the real numbers. The real
numbers are not, however, an algebraically closed eld,
because they do not include the square root of minus one.

2.5 Complex numbers

Main article: Complex number
Moving to a greater level of abstraction, the real numbers can be extended to the complex numbers. This set
of numbers arose historically from trying to nd closed
formulas for the roots of cubic and quartic polynomials.
This led to expressions involving the square roots of negative numbers, and eventually to the denition of a new
number: a square root of 1, denoted by i, a symbol assigned by Leonhard Euler, and called the imaginary unit.
The complex numbers consist of all numbers of the form

a + bi
where a and b are real numbers. Because of this, complex numbers correspond to points on the complex plane,
a vector space of two real dimensions. In the expression
a + bi, the real number a is called the real part and b is
called the imaginary part. If the real part of a complex
number is 0, then the number is called an imaginary number or is referred to as purely imaginary; if the imaginary
part is 0, 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 .

Just as the same fraction can be written in more than one

way, the same decimal may have more than one representation. 1.0 and 0.999... are two dierent decimal numerals representing the natural number 1. There are innitely
many other ways of representing the number 1, for example 1.00, 1.000, and so on.

In abstract algebra, the complex numbers are an example of an algebraically closed eld, meaning that every
polynomial with complex coecients can be factored into
linear factors. Like the real number system, the complex
number system is a eld and is complete, but unlike the
real numbers, it is not ordered. That is, there is no meanEvery real number is either rational or irrational. Every ing in saying that i is greater than 1, nor is there any meanreal number corresponds to a point on the number line. ing in saying that i is less than 1. In technical terms, the
The real numbers also have an important but highly tech- complex numbers lack the trichotomy property.
nical property called the least upper bound property.
Each of the number systems mentioned above is a proper
When a real number represents a measurement, there subset of the next number system. Symbolically, N
is always a margin of error. This is often indicated by Z Q R C .

3
3.1

5 EXTENSIONS OF THE CONCEPT

Subclasses of the integers

Even and odd numbers

Main article: Even and odd numbers

An even number is an integer that is evenly divisible
by two, that is divisible by two without remainder; an odd
number is an integer that is not even. (The old-fashioned
term evenly divisible is now almost always shortened to
"divisible".) Equivalently, an odd number is that it is an
integer of the form n = 2k + 1, where k is an integer, and
an even number has the form n = 2k where k is an integer.

3.2

Prime numbers

Main article: Prime number

4.2 Computable numbers

Main article: Computable number
A computable number, also known as recursive number, is a real number such that there exists an algorithm
which, given a positive number n as input, produces the
rst n digits of the computable numbers decimal representation. Equivalent denitions can be given using recursive functions, Turing machines or -calculus. The
computable numbers are stable for all usual arithmetic
operations, including the computation of the roots of a
polynomial, and thus form a real closed eld that contains
the real algebraic numbers.
The computable numbers may be viewed as the real numbers that may be exactly represented in a computer: a
computable number is exactly represented by its rst digits and a program for computing further digits. However,
the computable numbers are rarely used in practice. One
reason is that there is no algorithm for testing the equality
of two computable numbers. More precisely, there cannot exist any algorithm which takes any computable number as an input, and decides in every case if this number
is equal to zero or not.

A prime number is an integer greater than 1 that is not

the product of two smaller positive integers. The prime
numbers have been widely studied for more than 2000
years and have led to many questions, only some of which
have been answered. The study of these questions is
called number theory. An example of a question that is The set of computable numbers has the same cardinality
still unanswered is whether every even number is the sum as the natural numbers. Therefore, almost all real numof two primes. This is called Goldbachs conjecture.
bers are non-computable. However, it is very dicult to
A question that has been answered is whether every in- produce explicitly a real number that is not computable.
teger greater than one is a product of primes in only one
way, except for a rearrangement of the primes. This is
called fundamental theorem of arithmetic. A proof ap5 Extensions of the concept
pears in Euclids Elements.

3.3

Other classes of integers

5.1

p-adic numbers

Main article: p-adic number

Many subsets of the natural numbers have been the subject of specic studies and have been named, often after
the rst mathematician that has studied them. Example The p-adic numbers may have innitely long expansions
of such sets of integers are Fibonacci numbers and perfect to the left of the decimal point, in the same way that real
numbers may have innitely long expansions to the right.
numbers. For more examples, see Integer sequence.
The number system that results depends on what base is
used for the digits: any base is possible, but a prime number base provides the best mathematical properties. The
4 Subclasses of the complex num- set of the p-adic numbers contains the rational numbers,
but is not contained in the complex numbers.
bers
The elements of an algebraic function eld over a nite
and algebraic numbers have many similar propereld
4.1 Algebraic, irrational and transcendenties
(see
Function eld analogy). Therefore, they are oftal numbers
ten regarded as numbers by number theorists. The p-adic
Algebraic numbers are those that are a solution to a poly- numbers play an important role in this analogy.
nomial equation with integer coecients. Complex numbers that are not rational numbers are called irrational
numbers. Complex numbers which are not algebraic are 5.2 Hypercomplex numbers
called transcendental numbers. The algebraic numbers
that are solutions of a monic polynomial equation with Main article: hypercomplex number
integer coecients are called algebraic integers.

6.2

Zero

Some number systems that are not included in the complex numbers may be constructed from the real numbers
in a way that generalize the construction of the complex
numbers. They are sometimes called hypercomplex numbers. They include the quaternions H, introduced by Sir
William Rowan Hamilton, in which multiplication is not
commutative, and the octonions, in which multiplication
is not associative.

5.3

Transnite numbers

5
The rst 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.[11]

6.2 Zero
Further information: History of zero
The use of 0 as a number should be distinguished from

Main article: transnite number

For dealing with innite sets, the natural numbers have
been generalized to the ordinal numbers and to the
cardinal numbers. The former gives the ordering of the
set, while the latter gives its size. For nite sets, both
ordinal and cardinal numbers are identied with the natural numbers. In the innite case, many ordinal numbers
correspond to the same cardinal number.

5.4

Nonstandard numbers

The number 605 in Khmer numerals, from an inscription from

683 AD. An early use of zero as a decimal gure.

Hyperreal numbers are used in non-standard analysis.

The hyperreals, or nonstandard reals (usually denoted as
*R), denote an ordered eld that is a proper extension
of the ordered eld of real numbers R and satises the
transfer principle. This principle allows true rst-order
statements about R to be reinterpreted as true rst-order
statements about *R.

its use as a placeholder numeral in place-value systems.

Many ancient texts used 0. Babylonian (Modern Iraq)
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 Shunye or shunya to
refer to the concept of void. In mathematics texts this
[12]
Superreal and surreal numbers extend the real numbers by word often refers to the number zero.
adding innitesimally small numbers and innitely large Records show that the Ancient Greeks seemed unsure
numbers, but still form elds.
about the status of 0 as a number: they asked themselves
A relation number is dened as the class of relations con- how can 'nothing' be something?" leading to interestsisting of all those relations that are similar to one mem- ing philosophical and, by the Medieval period, religious
arguments about the nature and existence of 0 and the
ber of the class.[9]
vacuum. The paradoxes of Zeno of Elea depend in large
part on the uncertain interpretation of 0. (The ancient
Greeks even questioned whether 1 was a number.)

History

The late Olmec people of south-central Mexico began to

use a true zero (a shell glyph) in the New World possi6.1 First use of numbers
bly by the 4th century BC but certainly by 40 BC, which
became an integral part of Maya numerals and the Maya
Main articles: History of numbers and History of writing calendar. Mayan arithmetic used base 4 and base 5 writancient numbers
ten as base 20. Sanchez in 1961 reported a base 4, base
5 nger abacus.
Bones and other artifacts have been discovered with By 130 AD, Ptolemy, inuenced by Hipparchus and the
marks cut into them that many believe are tally marks.[10] Babylonians, was using a symbol for 0 (a small circle with
These tally marks may have been used for counting a long overbar) within a sexagesimal numeral system othelapsed time, such as numbers of days, lunar cycles or erwise using alphabetic Greek numerals. Because it was
keeping records of quantities, such as of animals.
used alone, not as just a placeholder, this Hellenistic zero
A tallying system has no concept of place value (as in
modern decimal notation), which limits its representation
of large numbers. Nonetheless tallying systems are considered the rst kind of abstract numeral system.

was the rst 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

HISTORY

70).

the assumption that they were meaningless, just as Ren

Another true zero was used in tables alongside Roman nu- Descartes did with negative solutions in a Cartesian coormerals by 525 (rst known use by Dionysius Exiguus), but dinate system.
as a word, nulla meaning nothing, not as a symbol. When
division produced 0 as a remainder, nihil, also meaning
nothing, was used. These medieval zeros were used by all 6.4 Rational numbers
future medieval computists (calculators of Easter). An
isolated use of their initial, N, was used in a table of Ro- It is likely that the concept of fractional numbers dates
man numerals by Bede or a colleague about 725, a true to prehistoric times. The Ancient Egyptians used their
Egyptian fraction notation for rational numbers in mathzero symbol.
ematical texts such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
An early documented use of the zero by Brahmagupta (in and the Kahun Papyrus. Classical Greek and Indian
the Brhmasphuasiddhnta) dates to 628. He treated 0 mathematicians made studies of the theory of rational
as a number and discussed operations involving it, includ- numbers, as part of the general study of number theory.
ing division. By this time (the 7th century) the concept The best known of these is Euclids Elements, dating to
had clearly reached Cambodia as Khmer numerals, and roughly 300 BC. Of the Indian texts, the most relevant is
documentation shows the idea later spreading to China the Sthananga Sutra, which also covers number theory as
and the Islamic world.
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 devel6.3 Negative numbers
oped in tandem. For example, it is common for the Jain
math sutra to include calculations of decimal-fraction apFurther information: History of negative numbers
proximations to pi or the square root of 2. Similarly,
Babylonian math texts had always used sexagesimal (base
The abstract concept of negative numbers was recognized 60) fractions with great frequency.
as early as 100 BC 50 BC in China. The Nine Chapters
on the Mathematical Art contains methods for nding the
areas of gures; red rods were used to denote positive 6.5 Irrational numbers
coecients, black for negative.[13] The rst reference in
a Western work was in the 3rd century AD in Greece. Further information: History of irrational numbers
Diophantus referred to the equation equivalent to 4x + 20
= 0 (the solution is negative) in Arithmetica, saying that
The earliest known use of irrational numbers was in
the equation gave an absurd result.
the Indian Sulba Sutras composed between 800 and 500
During the 600s, negative numbers were in use in BC.[15] The rst existence proofs of irrational numbers is
India to represent debts. Diophantus previous reference usually attributed to Pythagoras, more specically to the
was discussed more explicitly by Indian mathematician Pythagorean Hippasus of Metapontum, who produced a
Brahmagupta, in Brhmasphuasiddhnta 628, who used
(most likely geometrical) proof of the irrationality of the
negative numbers to produce the general form quadratic square root of 2. The story goes that Hippasus discovered
formula that remains in use today. However, in the
irrational numbers when trying to represent the square
12th century in India, Bhaskara gives negative roots for root of 2 as a fraction. However Pythagoras believed in
quadratic equations but says the negative value is in this
the absoluteness of numbers, and could not accept the excase not to be taken, for it is inadequate; people do not istence of irrational numbers. He could not disprove their
approve of negative roots.
existence through logic, but he could not accept irrational
European mathematicians, for the most part, resisted the numbers, so he sentenced Hippasus to death by drowning.
concept of negative numbers until the 17th century, al- The 16th century brought nal European acceptance of
though Fibonacci allowed negative solutions in nancial negative integral and fractional numbers. By the 17th
problems where they could be interpreted as debts (chap- century, mathematicians generally used decimal fracter 13 of Liber Abaci, 1202) and later as losses (in Flos). tions with modern notation. It was not, however, unAt the same time, the Chinese were indicating negative til the 19th century that mathematicians separated irranumbers by drawing a diagonal stroke through the right- tionals into algebraic and transcendental parts, and once
most non-zero digit of the corresponding positive num- more undertook scientic study of irrationals. It had
bers numeral.[14] The rst use of negative numbers in a remained almost dormant since Euclid. In 1872, the
European work was by Nicolas Chuquet during the 15th publication of the theories of Karl Weierstrass (by his
century. He used them as exponents, but referred to them pupil Kossak), Heine (Crelle, 74), Georg Cantor (Anas absurd numbers.
nalen, 5), and Richard Dedekind was brought about. In
As recently as the 18th century, it was common practice 1869, Mray had taken the same point of departure as
to ignore any negative results returned by equations on Heine, but the theory is generally referred to the year

6.8

Complex numbers

1872. Weierstrasss method was completely set forth

by Salvatore Pincherle (1880), and Dedekinds has received additional prominence through the authors later
work (1888) and endorsement by Paul Tannery (1894).
Weierstrass, Cantor, and Heine base their theories on innite 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 Mray.

rections, innite in area, innite everywhere, and innite

perpetually.

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 19th century were
brought into prominence through the writings of Joseph
Louis Lagrange. Other noteworthy contributions have
been made by Druckenmller (1837), Kunze (1857),
Lemke (1870), and Gnther (1872). Ramus (1855) rst
connected the subject with determinants, resulting, with
the subsequent contributions of Heine, Mbius, and Gnther, in the theory of Kettenbruchdeterminanten.

Leibniz.

Aristotle dened the traditional Western notion of mathematical innity. He distinguished between actual innity and potential innitythe general consensus being
that only the latter had true value. Galileo Galilei's Two
New Sciences discussed the idea of one-to-one correspondences between innite 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, transnite numbers and formulating
The search for roots of quintic and higher degree equa- the continuum hypothesis.
tions was an important development, the AbelRuni In the 1960s, Abraham Robinson showed how innitely
theorem (Runi 1799, Abel 1824) showed that they large and innitesimal numbers can be rigorously decould not be solved by radicals (formulas involving only ned and used to develop the eld of nonstandard analarithmetical operations and roots). Hence it was neces- ysis. The system of hyperreal numbers represents a
sary to consider the wider set of algebraic numbers (all rigorous method of treating the ideas about innite
solutions to polynomial equations). Galois (1832) linked and innitesimal numbers that had been used casually
polynomial equations to group theory giving rise to the by mathematicians, scientists, and engineers ever since
eld of Galois theory.
the invention of innitesimal calculus by Newton and

6.6

Transcendental numbers and reals

Further information: History of

The existence of transcendental numbers[16] was rst established by Liouville (1844, 1851). Hermite proved in
1873 that e is transcendental and Lindemann proved in
1882 that is transcendental. Finally, Cantor showed
that the set of all real numbers is uncountably innite but
the set of all algebraic numbers is countably innite, so
there is an uncountably innite number of transcendental
numbers.

A modern geometrical version of innity is given by

projective geometry, which introduces ideal points at innity, 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.

6.8 Complex numbers

Further information: History of complex numbers
The earliest eeting 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 such as Niccol Fontana Tartaglia and
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 rm ground at the time.
When Ren Descartes coined the term imaginary for
Further information: History of innity
these quantities in 1637, he intended it as derogatory.
(See imaginary number for a discussion of the reality
The earliest known conception of mathematical innity of complex numbers.) A further source of confusion was
appears in the Yajur Veda, an ancient Indian script, which that the equation
at one point states, If you remove a part from innity or
add a part to innity, still what remains is innity. Innity was a popular topic of philosophical study among (1)2 = 11 = 1
the Jain mathematicians c. 400 BC. They distinguished
between ve types of innity: innite in one and two di- seemed capriciously inconsistent with the algebraic iden-

6.7

Innity and innitesimals

8
tity

a b = ab,

7 SEE ALSO
eventually led to the concept of the extended complex
plane.

6.9 Prime numbers

which is valid for positive real numbers a and b, and was

also used in complex number calculations with one of a, b Prime numbers have been studied throughout recorded
positive and the other negative. The incorrect use of this history. Euclid devoted one book of the Elements to the
identity, and the related identity
theory of primes; in it he proved the innitude of the
primes and the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, and
presented the Euclidean algorithm for nding the greatest

1
1
common divisor of two numbers.
=
a
a
In 240 BC, Eratosthenes used the Sieve of Eratosthenes
in the case when both a and b are negative even bedeviled
Euler. This diculty eventually led him to
the convention
of using the special symbol i in place of 1 to guard
against this mistake.

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

The 18th century saw the work of Abraham de Moivre number theorem, describing the asymptotic distribution
and Leonhard Euler. De Moivres formula (1730) states: of primes. Other results concerning the distribution of
the primes include Eulers proof that the sum of the reciprocals of the primes diverges, and the Goldbach conjecture, which claims that any suciently large even num(cos + i sin )n = cos n + i sin n
ber is the sum of two primes. Yet another conjecture reand to Euler (1748) Eulers formula of complex analysis: lated to the distribution of prime numbers is the Riemann
hypothesis, formulated by Bernhard Riemann in 1859.
The prime number theorem was nally proved by Jacques
Hadamard and Charles de la Valle-Poussin in 1896.
cos + i sin = ei .
Goldbach and Riemanns conjectures remain unproven
The existence of complex numbers was not completely and unrefuted.
accepted until Caspar Wessel described the geometrical
interpretation in 1799. Carl Friedrich Gauss rediscovered
and popularized it several years later, and as a result the
7 See also
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 Numerals by culture
De Algebra tractatus.
Arabic numerals
Also in 1799, Gauss provided the rst 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 due to the labors of
Augustin Louis Cauchy and Niels Henrik Abel, and especially the latter, who was the rst to boldly use complex
numbers with a success that is well known.

Babylonian numerals
Egyptian numerals
Greek numerals
Hebrew numerals

Indian numerals
Gauss studied complex numbers of the form a + bi, where
a and b are integral, or rational (and i is one of the two
Roman numerals
roots of x2 + 1 = 0). His student, Gotthold Eisenstein,
History of numbers
studied the type a + b, where is a complex root of x3
1 = 0. Other such classes (called cyclotomic elds) of
complex numbers derive from the roots of unity xk 1 = 0 Other related topics
for higher values of k. This generalization is largely due to
Ernst Kummer, who also invented ideal numbers, which
Concrete number
were expressed as geometrical entities by Felix Klein in
1893.
Floating point representation in computers
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

The Foundations of Arithmetic

Integer (computer science)

9
List of numbers
List of numbers in various languages
Literal (computer science)
Mathematical constants

[13] Staszkow, Ronald; Robert Bradshaw (2004). The Mathematical Palette (3rd ed.). Brooks Cole. p. 41. ISBN
0-534-40365-4.
[14] Smith, David Eugene (1958). History of Modern Mathematics. Dover Publications. p. 259. ISBN 0-486-204294.

Mythical numbers

[15] Selin, Helaine, ed. (2000). Mathematics across cultures:

the history of non-Western mathematics. Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 451. ISBN 0-7923-6481-3.

Number sign

[16] Bogomolny, A. Whats a number?". Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles. Retrieved 11 July 2010.

Mathematical constants and functions

Numerical cognition
Numero sign
Orders of magnitude
Physical constants
Subitizing and counting

9 References
Tobias Dantzig, Number, the language of science; a critical survey written for the cultured nonmathematician, New York, The Macmillan company, 1930.
Erich Friedman, Whats special about this number?

Notes

[1] Gilsdorf, Thomas E. Introduction to Cultural Mathematics:

With Case Studies in the Otomies and Incas, John Wiley &
Sons, Feb 24, 2012.

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.

[2] Restivo, S. Mathematics in Society and History, Springer

Science & Business Media, Nov 30, 1992.

Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient

to Modern Times, Oxford University Press, 1972.

[3] Ore, Oystein. Number Theory and Its History, Courier

Dover Publications.

Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell,

Principia Mathematica to *56, Cambridge University Press, 1910.

[4] Gouvea, Fernando Q. The Princeton Companion to Mathematics, Chapter II.1, The Origins of Modern Mathematics, p. 82. Princeton University Press, September 28,
2008. ISBN 978-0691118802.

George I. Sanchez, Arithmetic in Maya, AustinTexas, 1961.

[5] Weisstein, Eric W., Natural Number, MathWorld.

[6] natural number, Merriam-Webster.com (MerriamWebster), retrieved 4 October 2014
[7] Suppes, Patrick (1972). Axiomatic Set Theory. Courier
Dover Publications. p. 1. ISBN 0-486-61630-4.
[8] Weisstein, Eric W., Integer, MathWorld.
[9] Russell, Bertrand (1919). Introduction to Mathematical
Philosophy. Routledge. p. 56. ISBN 0-415-09604-9.
[10] Marshak, A., The Roots of Civilisation; Cognitive Beginnings of Mans First Art, Symbol and Notation, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London: 1972), 81.
[11] Egyptian Mathematical Papyri Mathematicians of the
African Diaspora. Math.bualo.edu. Retrieved 201201-30.
[12] Historia Matematica Mailing List Archive: Re: [HM]
The Zero Story: a question. Sunsite.utk.edu. 1999-0426. Retrieved 2012-01-30.

10 External links
Nechaev, V.I. (2001), Number, in Hazewinkel,
Michiel, Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer,
ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4
Tallant, Jonathan. Do Numbers Exist?". Numberphile. Brady Haran.
Mesopotamian and Germanic numbers
BBC Radio 4, In Our Time: Negative Numbers
'4000 Years of Numbers, lecture by Robin Wilson,
07/11/07, Gresham College (available for download
as MP3 or MP4, and as a text le).
Whats the Worlds Favorite Number?". 201106-22. Retrieved 2011-09-17.; Cuddling With 9,
Smooching With 8, Winking At 7. 2011-08-11.
Retrieved 2011-09-17.

10

11

11
11.1

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Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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