NUMBERS

FROM WIKIPEDIA

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. In common usage, 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, real
numbers and complex numbers, which extend
the real numbers by including √-1 and
sometimes additional objects. Calculations with
numbers are done with arithmetical operations,
the most familiar being addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, and exponentiation.
Their study or usage is called arithmetic. The
same term may also refer to number theory, the
study of the properties of the natural numbers.

During the 19th century, mathematicians began

to develop many different abstractions which
share certain properties of numbers and may be
seen as extending the concept. Among the first
were the hypercomplex numbers, which consist
of various extensions or modifications of the
complex number system. Today, number
systems are considered important special
examples of much more general categories
such as rings and fields, and the application of
the term "number" is a matter of convention,
without fundamental significance.

Numbers should be distinguished from

numerals, the symbols used to represent
numbers.

Contents
List of types of numbers .................................. 3

Main types ................................................... 3

Number representations ............................... 5

Types of integer ........................................... 5

Algebraic numbers ....................................... 6

Non-standard numbers ................................. 7

Computability and definability ....................... 8

Main classification ........................................... 8

Natural numbers .......................................... 8

Rational numbers ......................................... 9

Real numbers .............................................. 9

Complex numbers ...................................... 11

Subclasses of the integers ............................ 12

Even or Oddness (parity) ........................... 12

Arithmetic on even and odd numbers ....... 13

Prime numbers .......................................... 14

Subclasses of the complex numbers .............. 15

Algebraic numbers ..................................... 15

Properties ............................................... 17

The field of algebraic numbers ................ 18

 Related fields ......................................... 18

Algebraic integers ................................... 19

Transcendental numbers ............................ 20

Properties ............................................... 20

Numbers proven to be transcendental ..... 22

Computable numbers ................................. 22

Extensions of the concept ............................. 23

Hypercomplex numbers .............................. 23

Transfinite numbers ................................... 23

Nonstandard numbers ................................ 23

Hyperreal number ...................................... 24

Numeral system ............................................ 24

Main numeral systems ............................... 25

Positional systems in detail ........................ 27

Sign-value notation .................................... 29

Subtractive notation ................................ 31

LIST OF TYPES OF
NUMBERS

Numbers can be classified according to how

they are represented or according to the
properties that they have.

MAIN TYPES
Natural numbers: The counting numbers {1, 2,
3, …}, are called natural numbers. Some
authors include 0, so that the natural numbers
are {0, 1, 2, 3, …}.

Whole numbers: The numbers {0, 1, 2, 3, …}.

Integers: Positive and negative counting

numbers, as well as zero: {…, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, …}.

Rational numbers: Numbers that can be

expressed as a ratio of an integer to a non-zero
integer. All integers are rational, but the
converse is not true.

Real numbers: Numbers that have decimal

representations that have a finite or infinite
sequence of digits to the right of the decimal
point. They can be positive, negative, or zero.
All rational numbers are real, but the converse
is not true.

Irrational numbers: Real numbers that are not

rational.

Imaginary numbers: Numbers that equal the

product of a real number and the square root of
–1. The number 0 is both real and imaginary.

Complex numbers: Includes real numbers,

imaginary numbers, and sums and differences
of real and imaginary numbers.

Hypercomplex numbers include various number-

system extensions: quaternions, octonions,
sedenions, tessarines, coquaternions, and
biquaternions.

p-adic numbers: Various number systems

constructed using limits of rational numbers,
according to notions of "limit" different from the
one used to construct the real numbers.
NUMBER REPRESENTATIONS
• Decimal: The standard Hindu–Arabic
numeral system using base ten.

• Binary: The base-two numeral system

used by computers. See positional
notation for information on other bases.

• Roman numerals: The numeral system of

ancient Rome, still occasionally used
today.

• Fractions: A representation of a non-

integer as a ratio of two integers. These
include improper fractions as well as
mixed numbers.

• Scientific notation: A method for writing

very small and very large numbers using
powers of 10. When used in science, such
a number also conveys the precision of
measurement using significant figures.

• Knuth's up-arrow notation and Conway

chained arrow notation: Notations that
allow the concise representation of
extremely large integers such as Graham's
number.

TYPES OF INTEGER
• Even and odd numbers: An integer is even
if it is a multiple of two, and is odd
otherwise.

• Prime number: An integer with exactly two

positive divisors: itself and 1. The primes
form an infinite sequence 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13,
17, 19, 23, 29, 31, ….
 • Composite number: A number that can be
factored into a product of smaller integers.
Every integer greater than one is either
prime or composite.

• Polygonal numbers: These are numbers

that can be represented as dots that are
arranged in the shape of a regular
polygon, including Triangular numbers,
Square numbers, Pentagonal numbers,
Hexagonal numbers, Heptagonal numbers,
Octagonal numbers, Nonagonal numbers,
Decagonal numbers, and Dodecagonal
numbers.

• There are many other famous integer

sequences, such as the sequence of
Fibonacci numbers, the sequence of
factorials, the sequence of perfect
numbers, and so forth, many of which are
enumerated in the On-Line Encyclopedia
of Integer Sequences.

ALGEBRAIC NUMBERS
• Algebraic number: Any number that is the
root of a non-zero polynomial with rational
coefficients.

• Transcendental number: Any real or

complex number that is not algebraic.
Examples include e and π.

• Quadratic surd: An algebraic number that

is the root of a quadratic equation. Such a
number can be expressed as the sum of a
rational number and the square root of a
rational.

• Constructible number: A number

representing a length that can be
 constructed using a compass and
straightedge. These are a subset of the
algebraic numbers, and include the
quadratic surds.

• Algebraic integer: An algebraic number

that is the root of a monic polynomial with
integer coefficients.

NON-STANDARD NUMBERS
• Transfinite numbers: Numbers that are
greater than any natural number.

• Ordinal numbers: Finite and infinite

numbers used to describe the order types
of well-ordered sets.

• Cardinal numbers: Finite and infinite

numbers used to describe the cardinalities
of sets.

• Infinitesimals: Nilpotent numbers. These

are smaller than any positive real number,
but are nonetheless greater than zero.
These were used in the initial development
of calculus, and are used in synthetic
differential geometry.

• Hyperreal numbers: The numbers used in

non-standard analysis. These include
infinite and infinitesimal numbers which
possess certain properties of the real
numbers.

• Surreal numbers: A number system that

includes the hyperreal numbers as well as
the ordinals. The surreal numbers are the
largest possible ordered field.
COMPUTABILITY AND DEFINABILITY
• Computable number: A real number whose
digits can be computed using an algorithm.

• 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.

MAIN CLASSIFICATION

Different types of numbers have many different

uses. Numbers can be classified into sets,
called number systems, such as the natural
numbers and the real numbers. The same
number can be written in many different ways.
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 (sometimes called whole numbers or
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.

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
(i.e., 3 is the third successor of 0). Many
different representations are possible; all that is
needed to formally represent 3 is to inscribe a
certain symbol or pattern of symbols three
times.

RATIONAL NUMBERS
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 different fractions may correspond to the
same rational number; for example 1/2 and 2/4
are equal.

REAL NUMBERS
The real numbers include all the measuring
numbers. Real 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,
five hundredths, and six thousandths. A finite
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. To represent
the rest of the real numbers requires an infinite
sequence of digits after the decimal point. Since
it is impossible to write infinitely 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).

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.

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
0.001 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 first two
digits after the decimal place are significant, this
is usually rounded to 5.61.
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 trying to find 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
definition 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.

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 i
is less than 1. In technical terms, the complex
numbers lack the trichotomy property.

Each of the number systems mentioned above

is a proper subset of the next number system.

SUBCLASSES OF THE
INTEGERS

EVEN OR ODDNESS (PARITY)

Parity is a mathematical term that describes the
property of an integer's inclusion in one of two
categories: even or odd. An integer is even if it
is 'evenly divisible' by 2 and odd if it is not even.

Examples of even numbers include −4, 0, 8, and

1738. In particular, zero is an even number.
Some examples of odd numbers are −5, 3, 9,
and 73. Parity does not apply to non-integer
numbers.

A formal definition of an even number is that it

is an integer of the form n = 2k, where k is an
integer; it can then be shown that an odd
number is an integer of the form n = 2k + 1. This
classification applies only to integers, i.e., non-
integers like 1/2, 4.201, or infinity are neither
even nor odd.

A number (i.e., integer) expressed in the

decimal numeral system is even or odd
according to whether its last digit is even or
odd. That is, if the last digit is 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9,
then it is odd; otherwise it is even. The same
idea will work using any even base. In
particular, a number expressed in the binary
numeral system is odd if its last digit is 1 and
even if its last digit is 0. In an odd base, the
number is even according to the sum of its
digits – it is even if and only if the sum of its
digits is even.

ARITHMETIC ON EVEN AND ODD

NUMBERS

The following laws can be verified using the

properties of divisibility. They are a special case
of rules in modular arithmetic, and are
commonly used to check if an equality is likely
to be correct by testing the parity of each side.
As with ordinary arithmetic, multiplication and
addition are commutative and associative in
modulo 2 arithmetic, and multiplication is
distributive over addition. However, subtraction
in modulo 2 is identical to addition, so
subtraction also possesses these properties,
which is not true for normal integer arithmetic.

Addition and subtraction:

• even ± even = even;

• even ± odd = odd;

• odd ± odd = even;

Rules analogous to these for divisibility by 9 are

used in the method of casting out nines.

Multiplication:

• even × even = even;

• even × odd = even;

• odd × odd = odd;

The structure ({even, odd}, +, ×) is in fact a field

with just two elements.
PRIME NUMBERS
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number
greater than 1 that has no positive divisors other
than 1 and itself. A natural number greater than
1 that is not a prime number is called a
composite number. For example, 5 is prime
because 1 and 5 are its only positive integer
factors, whereas 6 is composite because it has
the divisors 2 and 3 in addition to 1 and 6. The
fundamental theorem of arithmetic establishes
the central role of primes in number theory: any
integer greater than 1 can be expressed as a
product of primes that is unique up to ordering.
The uniqueness in this theorem requires
excluding 1 as a prime because one can include
arbitrarily many instances of 1 in any
factorization, e.g., 3, 1 · 3, 1 · 1 · 3, etc. are all
valid factorizations of 3.

The property of being prime (or not) is called

primality. A simple but slow method of verifying
the primality of a given number n is known as
trial division. It consists of testing whether n is a
multiple of any integer between 2 and √n.

There are infinitely many primes. There is no

known simple formula that separates prime
numbers from composite numbers. However,
the distribution of primes, that is to say, the
statistical behavior of primes in the large, can
be modelled. The first result in that direction is
the prime number theorem, proven at the end of
the 19th century, which says that the probability
that a given, randomly chosen number n is
prime is inversely proportional to its number of
digits, or to the logarithm of n.
SUBCLASSES OF THE
COMPLEX NUMBERS

Algebraic numbers are those that are a solution

to a polynomial equation with integer
coefficients. Complex numbers that are not
rational numbers are called irrational numbers.
Complex numbers which are not algebraic are
called transcendental numbers. The algebraic
numbers that are solutions of a monic
polynomial equation with integer coefficients are
called algebraic integers.

ALGEBRAIC NUMBERS
An algebraic number is any complex number
that is a root of a non-zero polynomial in one
variable with rational coefficients (or
equivalently – by clearing denominators – with
integer coefficients). All integers and rational
numbers are algebraic. The same is not true for
real and complex numbers because of
transcendental numbers such as π and e.
Almost all real and complex numbers are
transcendental.

Examples:

The rational numbers, expressed as the quotient

of two integers a and b, b not equal to zero,
satisfy the above definition because x = a/b is
the root of bx − a.

The quadratic surds (irrational roots of a

quadratic polynomial ax2 + bx + c with integer
coefficients a, b, and c) are algebraic numbers.
If the quadratic polynomial is monic (a = 1) then
the roots are quadratic integers.
The constructible numbers are those numbers
that can be constructed from a given unit length
using straightedge and compass. These include
all quadratic surds, all rational numbers, and all
numbers that can be formed from these using
the basic arithmetic operations and the
extraction of square roots. (Note that by
designating cardinal directions for 1, −1, i, and
−i, complex numbers such as 3 + √2i are
considered constructible.)

Any expression formed from algebraic numbers

using any combination of the basic arithmetic
operations and extraction of nth roots gives
another algebraic number.

Polynomial roots that cannot be expressed in

terms of the basic arithmetic operations and
extraction of nth roots (such as the roots of x5 −
x + 1). This happens with many, but not all,
polynomials of degree 5 or higher.

Gaussian integers: those complex numbers a +

bi where both a and b are integers are also
quadratic integers.

Trigonometric functions of rational multiples of

π (except when undefined): that is, the
trigonometric numbers. For example, each of
cos(π/7), cos(3π/7), cos(5π/7) satisfies 8x3 −
4x2 − 4x + 1 = 0. This polynomial is irreducible
over the rationals, and so these three cosines
are conjugate algebraic numbers. Likewise,
tan(3π/16), tan(7π/16), tan(11π/16),
tan(15π/16) all satisfy the irreducible polynomial
x4 − 4x3 − 6x2 + 4x + 1, and so are conjugate
algebraic integers.

Some irrational numbers are algebraic and

some are not:
The numbers √2 and 3 √3/2 are algebraic since
they are roots of polynomials x2 − 2 and 8x3 − 3,
respectively.

The golden ratio φ is algebraic since it is a root

of the polynomial x2 − x − 1.

The numbers π and e are not algebraic

numbers, hence they are transcendental.

PROPERTIES
• The set of algebraic numbers is countable
(enumerable).

• Hence, the set of algebraic numbers has

Lebesgue measure zero (as a subset of
the complex numbers), i.e. "almost all"
complex numbers are not algebraic.

• Given an algebraic number, there is a

unique monic polynomial (with rational
coefficients) of least degree that has the
number as a root. This polynomial is called
its minimal polynomial. If its minimal
polynomial has degree n, then the
algebraic number is said to be of degree n.
An algebraic number of degree 1 is a
rational number. A real algebraic number
of degree 2 is a quadratic irrational.

• All algebraic numbers are computable and

therefore definable and arithmetical.

• The set of real algebraic numbers is

linearly ordered, countable, densely
ordered, and without first or last element,
so is order-isomorphic to the set of rational
numbers.
 • For real numbers a and b, the complex
number a + bi is algebraic if and only if
both a and b are algebraic.

THE FIELD OF ALGEBRAIC

NUMBERS

The sum, difference, product and quotient (if the

denominator is nonzero) of two algebraic
numbers is again algebraic (this fact can be
demonstrated using the resultant), and the
algebraic numbers therefore form a field. Every
root of a polynomial equation whose coefficients
are algebraic numbers is again algebraic. This
can be rephrased by saying that the field of
algebraic numbers is algebraically closed. In
fact, it is the smallest algebraically closed field
containing the rationals, and is therefore called
the algebraic closure of the rationals.

RELATED FIELDS
All numbers that can be obtained from the
integers using a finite number of integer
additions, subtractions, multiplications,
divisions, and taking nth roots where n is a
positive integer (i.e., radical expressions) are
algebraic. The converse, however, is not true:
there are algebraic numbers that cannot be
obtained in this manner. All of these numbers
are roots of polynomials of degree ≥5. This is a
result of Galois theory (see Quintic equations
and the Abel–Ruffini theorem). An example of
such a number is the unique real root of the
polynomial x5 − x − 1 (which is approximately
1.167304).

Algebraic numbers are all numbers that can be

defined explicitly or implicitly in terms of
polynomials, starting from the rational numbers.
One may generalize this to "closed-form
numbers", which may be defined in various
ways. Most broadly, all numbers that can be
defined explicitly or implicitly in terms of
polynomials, exponentials, and logarithms are
called "elementary numbers", and these include
the algebraic numbers, plus some
transcendental numbers. Most narrowly, one
may consider numbers explicitly defined in
terms of polynomials, exponentials, and
logarithms – this does not include all algebraic
numbers, but does include some simple
transcendental numbers such as e or log(2).

ALGEBRAIC INTEGERS
An algebraic integer is an algebraic number that
is a root of a polynomial with integer coefficients
with leading coefficient 1 (a monic polynomial).
Examples of algebraic integers are 5 + 13√2, 2
− 6i, and 1/2(1 + i√3). Note, therefore, that the
algebraic integers constitute a proper superset
of the integers, as the latter are the roots of
monic polynomials x − k for all k ∈ Z. In this
sense, algebraic integers are to algebraic
numbers what integers are to rational numbers.

The sum, difference and product of algebraic

integers are again algebraic integers, which
means that the algebraic integers form a ring.
The name algebraic integer comes from the fact
that the only rational numbers that are algebraic
integers are the integers, and because the
algebraic integers in any number field are in
many ways analogous to the integers.
TRANSCENDENTAL NUMBERS
In mathematics, a transcendental number is a
real or complex number that is not algebraic—
that is, it is not a root of a non-zero polynomial
equation with rational coefficients. The best-
known transcendental numbers are π and e.
Though only a few classes of transcendental
numbers are known (in part because it can be
extremely difficult to show that a given number
is transcendental), transcendental numbers are
not rare. Indeed, almost all real and complex
numbers are transcendental, since the algebraic
numbers are countable while the sets of real
and complex numbers are both uncountable. All
real transcendental numbers are irrational,
since all rational numbers are algebraic. The
converse is not true: not all irrational numbers
are transcendental; e.g., the square root of 2 is
irrational but not a transcendental number,
since it is a solution of the polynomial equation
x2 − 2 = 0.

PROPERTIES
The set of transcendental numbers is
uncountably infinite. Since the polynomials with
rational coefficients are countable, and since
each such polynomial has a finite number of
zeroes, the algebraic numbers must also be
countable. However, Cantor's diagonal
argument proves that the real numbers (and
therefore also the complex numbers) are
uncountable. Since the real numbers are the
union of algebraic and transcendental numbers,
they cannot both be countable. This makes the
transcendental numbers uncountable.
The irrational numbers contain all the real
transcendental numbers and a subset of the
algebraic numbers, including the quadratic
irrationals and other forms of algebraic
irrationals.

Any non-constant algebraic function of a single

variable yields a transcendental value when
applied to a transcendental argument. For
example, from knowing that π is transcendental,
we can immediately deduce that numbers such
as 5π, (π − 3)/√2, (√π − √3) 8 and (π5 + 7) 1/7 are
transcendental as well.

However, an algebraic function of several

variables may yield an algebraic number when
applied to transcendental numbers if these
numbers are not algebraically independent. For
example, π and (1 − π) are both transcendental,
but π + (1 − π) = 1 is obviously not. It is
unknown whether π + e, for example, is
transcendental, though at least one of π + e and
πe must be transcendental. More generally, for
any two transcendental numbers a and b, at
least one of a + b and ab must be
transcendental. To see this, consider the
polynomial (x − a)(x − b) = x2 − (a + b)x + ab. If
(a + b) and ab were both algebraic, then this
would be a polynomial with algebraic
coefficients. Because algebraic numbers form
an algebraically closed field, this would imply
that the roots of the polynomial, a and b, must
be algebraic. But this is a contradiction, and
thus it must be the case that at least one of the
coefficients is transcendental.

The non-computable numbers are a strict

subset of the transcendental numbers.
NUMBERS PROVEN TO BE
TRANSCENDENTAL

e a if a is algebraic and nonzero

π, e π as well as e−π/2 =i i

a b where a is algebraic but not 0 or 1, and b is

irrational algebraic

sin(a), cos(a) and tan(a), and their multiplicative

inverses csc(a), sec(a) and cot(a), for any
nonzero algebraic number a

ln(a) if a is algebraic and not equal to 0 or 1, for

any branch of the logarithm function

COMPUTABLE NUMBERS
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 first n digits of the
computable number's decimal representation.

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 field 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 first digits and a program for
computing further digits.

The set of computable numbers has the same

cardinality as the natural numbers. Therefore,
almost all real numbers are non-computable.
However, it is very difficult to produce explicitly
a real number that is not computable.

EXTENSIONS OF THE
CONCEPT

HYPERCOMPLEX NUMBERS
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.

TRANSFINITE NUMBERS
For dealing with infinite 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 finite sets, both ordinal
and cardinal numbers are identified with the
natural numbers. In the infinite case, many
ordinal numbers correspond to the same
cardinal number.

NONSTANDARD NUMBERS
Superreal and surreal numbers extend the real
numbers by adding infinitesimally small
numbers and infinitely large numbers, but still
form fields.
HYPERREAL NUMBER

NUMERAL SYSTEM

A numeral system (or system of numeration) is

a writing system for expressing numbers; that
is, a mathematical notation for representing
numbers of a given set, using digits or other
symbols in a consistent manner. It can be seen
as the context that allows the symbols "11" to
be interpreted as the binary symbol for three,
the decimal symbol for eleven, or a symbol for
other numbers in different bases.

The number the numeral represents is called its

value.

Ideally, a numeral system will:

Represent a useful set of numbers (e.g. all

integers, or rational numbers)

Give every number represented a unique

representation (or at least a standard
representation)

Reflect the algebraic and arithmetic structure of

the numbers.

For example, the usual decimal representation

of whole numbers gives every nonzero whole
number a unique representation as a finite
sequence of digits, beginning by a non-zero
digit. However, when decimal representation is
used for the rational or real numbers, such
numbers in general have an infinite number of
representations, for example 2.31 can also be
written as 2.310, 2.3100000, 2.309999999...,
etc., all of which have the same meaning except
for some scientific and other contexts where
greater precision is implied by a larger number
of figures shown.

The most commonly used system of numerals is

the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. Two Indian
mathematicians are credited with developing it.
The numeral system and the zero concept,
developed by the Hindus in India, slowly spread
to other surrounding countries due to their
commercial and military activities with India.
The Arabs adopted and modified it and spread
them to the western world due to their trade
links with them. The Western world modified
them and called them the Arabic numerals, as
they learned from them. Hence the current
western numeral system is the modified version
of the Hindu numeral system developed in India.

MAIN NUMERAL SYSTEMS

The simplest numeral system is the unary
numeral system, in which every natural number
is represented by a corresponding number of
symbols. If the symbol / is chosen, for example,
then the number seven would be represented by
///////. Tally marks represent one such system
still in common use.

The unary notation can be abbreviated by

introducing different symbols for certain new
values. Very commonly, these values are
powers of 10; so for instance, if / stands for one,
− for ten and + for 100, then the number 304
can be compactly represented as +++ //// and
the number 123 as + − − /// without any need for
zero. This is called sign-value notation. The
ancient Egyptian numeral system was of this
type, and the Roman numeral system was a
modification of this idea.
More useful still are systems which employ
special abbreviations for repetitions of symbols;
for example, using the first nine letters of the
alphabet for these abbreviations, with A
standing for "one occurrence", B "two
occurrences", and so on, one could then write
C+ D/ for the number 304. This system is used
when writing Chinese numerals and other East
Asian numerals based on Chinese. The number
system of the English language is of this type
("three hundred [and] four"), as are those of
other spoken languages, regardless of what
written systems they have adopted.

More elegant is a positional system, also known

as place-value notation. Again working in base
10, ten different digits 0, ..., 9 are used and the
position of a digit is used to signify the power of
ten that the digit is to be multiplied with, as in
304 = 3×10 2 + 0×10 1 + 4×10 0 . Note that zero,
which is not needed in the other systems, is of
crucial importance here, in order to be able to
"skip" a power. The Hindu–Arabic numeral
system, which originated in India and is now
used throughout the world, is a positional base-
10 system.

Arithmetic is much easier in positional systems

than in the earlier additive ones; furthermore,
additive systems need a large number of
different symbols for the different powers of 10;
a positional system needs only ten different
symbols (assuming that it uses base 10).

Positional decimal system is presently

universally used in human writing. The base
1000 is also used, by grouping the digits and
considering a sequence of three decimal digits
as a single digit. This is the meaning of the
common notation 1,000,234,567 used for very
large numbers.

In computers, the main numeral systems are

based on the positional system in base 2 (binary
numeral system), with two binary digits, 0 and 1.
Positional systems obtained by grouping binary
digits by three (octal numeral system) or four
(hexadecimal numeral system) are commonly
used.

The numerals used when writing numbers with

digits or symbols can be divided into two types
that might be called the arithmetic numerals
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and the geometric numerals
1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000 ..., respectively. The
sign-value systems use only the geometric
numerals and the positional systems use only
the arithmetic numerals. A sign-value system
does not need arithmetic numerals because
they are made by repetition (except for the Ionic
system), and a positional system does not need
geometric numerals because they are made by
position. However, the spoken language uses
both arithmetic and geometric numerals.

In certain areas of computer science, a modified

base-k positional system is used, called
bijective numeration, with digits 1, 2, ..., k (k≥1),
and zero being represented by an empty string.
This establishes a bijection between the set of
all such digit-strings and the set of non-negative
integers, avoiding the non-uniqueness caused
by leading zeros. Bijective base-1 is the same
as unary.

POSITIONAL SYSTEMS IN DETAIL

In a positional base-b numeral system (with b a
natural number greater than 1 known as the
radix), b basic symbols (or digits) corresponding
to the first b natural numbers including zero are
used. To generate the rest of the numerals, the
position of the symbol in the figure is used. The
symbol in the last position has its own value,
and as it moves to the left its value is multiplied
by b.

For example, in the decimal system (base 10),

the numeral 4327 means (4×10 3 ) + (3×10 2 ) +
(2×10 1 ) + (7×10 0 ), noting that 100 = 1.

In general, if b is the base, one writes a number

in the numeral system of base b by expressing it
in the form a n bn + a n − 1 b n − 1 + ... + a0 b 0 and
writing the enumerated digits a n a n − 1 a n − 2 ... a 0
in descending order. The digits are natural
numbers between 0 and b − 1, inclusive.

If a text (such as this one) discusses multiple

bases, and if ambiguity exists, the base (itself
represented in base 10) is added in subscript to
the right of the number, like this: 10101 2 .
Unless specified by context, numbers without
subscript are considered to be decimal.

In general, numbers in the base b system are of

the form:
𝑛𝑛 ∞

(𝑎𝑎𝑛𝑛 𝑎𝑎𝑛𝑛−1 ⋯ 𝑎𝑎0 . 𝑐𝑐1 𝑐𝑐2 𝑐𝑐3 ⋯ )𝑏𝑏 = � 𝑎𝑎𝑘𝑘 𝑏𝑏 𝑘𝑘 + � 𝑐𝑐𝑘𝑘 𝑏𝑏 −𝑘𝑘
𝑘𝑘=0 𝑘𝑘=1
The numbers b and b are the weights of the
k −k

corresponding digits. The position k is the

logarithm of the corresponding weight w, that
is𝑘𝑘 = log 𝑏𝑏 𝑤𝑤 = log 𝑏𝑏 𝑏𝑏 𝑘𝑘 . The highest used position
is close to the order of magnitude of the
number.

The number of tally marks required in the unary

numeral system for describing the weight would
have been w. In the positional system, the
number of digits required to describe it is only
𝑘𝑘 + 1 = log 𝑏𝑏 (𝑤𝑤) + 1 , for k ≥ 0. For example, to
describe the weight 1000 then four digits are
needed because log(1000) + 1 = 4. The number
of digits required to describe the position is
log 𝑏𝑏 (𝑘𝑘) + 1 = log 𝑏𝑏 log 𝑏𝑏 (𝑤𝑤) + 1 (in positions 1, 10,
100,... only for simplicity in the decimal
example).

Note that a number has a terminating or

repeating expansion if and only if it is rational;
this does not depend on the base. A number
that terminates in one base may repeat in
another (thus 0.3 10 = 0.0100110011001... 2 ). For
integers p and q with gcd(p, q) = 1, the fraction
p/q has a finite representation in base b if and
only if each prime factor of q is also a prime
factor of b. An irrational number stays aperiodic
(with an infinite number of non-repeating digits)
in all integral bases. Thus, for example in base
2, π = 3.1415926... 10 can be written as the
aperiodic 11.001001000011111... 2 .

If b = p is a prime number, one can define base-

p numerals whose expansion to the left never
stops; these are called the p-adic numbers.

SIGN-VALUE NOTATION
A sign-value notation represents numbers by a
series of numeric signs that added together
equal the number represented. In Roman
numerals for example, X means ten and L
means fifty. Hence LXXX means eighty (50 + 10
+ 10 + 10). There is no need for zero in sign-
value notation. Sign-value notation was the pre-
historic way of writing numbers and only
gradually evolved into place-value notation, also
known as positional notation.
Roman numerals, as used today, are based on
seven symbols:

Symbol I V X L C D M

Value 1 5 10 50 100 500 1,000

Numbers are formed by combining symbols and

adding the values, so II is two (two ones) and
XIII is thirteen (a ten and three ones). Because
each numeral has a fixed value rather than
representing multiples of ten, one hundred and
so on, according to position, there is no need for
"place keeping" zeros, as in numbers like 207 or
1066; those numbers are written as CCVII (two
hundreds, a five and two ones) and MLXVI (a
thousand, a fifty, a ten, a five and a one).

Symbols are placed from left to right in order of

value, starting with the largest. However, in a
few specific cases, to avoid four characters
being repeated in succession (such as IIII or
XXXX), subtractive notation is often used as
follows:

I placed before V or X indicates one less, so

four is IV (one less than five) and nine is IX (one
less than ten)

X placed before L or C indicates ten less, so

forty is XL (ten less than fifty) and ninety is XC
(ten less than a hundred)

C placed before D or M indicates a hundred

less, so four hundred is CD (a hundred less
than five hundred) and nine hundred is CM (a
hundred less than a thousand)
SUBTRACTIVE NOTATION
Subtractive notation is an early form of
positional notation used with Roman numerals
as a shorthand to replace four or five characters
in a numeral representing a number with usually
just two characters.

Using subtractive notation, the numeral VIIII

becomes simply IX. Without subtractive
notation, XIV represents the same number as
XVI (16 in Arabic numerals). With the
introduction of subtractive notation, XIV (14) no
longer represents the same number as XVI but
rather is an alternate way of writing XIIII.

By encoding information about the number into

the order of the numerals, subtractive notation
transformed the Roman numeral system from a
variation of a unary numeral system which used
alphabetic characters to represent groupings of
tally marks (a position-independent counting
system).