Numbers

Shankar Venkatagiri

Copyright 2010 Shankar Venkatagiri

Numbers
Shankar Venkatagiri
A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems. Paul Erdos
Copyright 2010 Shankar Venkatagiri

Objectives
Why grapple with this stuff? Numbers come in various colours. Some are whole, some are fractional and some dont belong to either of these camps.

After you are done with this presentation, come back to these objectives!

Objectives
Why grapple with this stuff? Numbers come in various colours. Some are whole, some are fractional and some dont belong to either of these camps. Classify numbers as integers and rationals

After you are done with this presentation, come back to these objectives!

Objectives
Why grapple with this stuff? Numbers come in various colours. Some are whole, some are fractional and some dont belong to either of these camps. Classify numbers as integers and rationals Prove the irrationality of numbers

After you are done with this presentation, come back to these objectives!

Objectives
Why grapple with this stuff? Numbers come in various colours. Some are whole, some are fractional and some dont belong to either of these camps. Classify numbers as integers and rationals Prove the irrationality of numbers Specify neighbourhoods of a number as intervals

After you are done with this presentation, come back to these objectives!

Objectives
Why grapple with this stuff? Numbers come in various colours. Some are whole, some are fractional and some dont belong to either of these camps. Classify numbers as integers and rationals Prove the irrationality of numbers Specify neighbourhoods of a number as intervals Determine the magnitude of a given number

After you are done with this presentation, come back to these objectives!

Objectives
Why grapple with this stuff? Numbers come in various colours. Some are whole, some are fractional and some dont belong to either of these camps. Classify numbers as integers and rationals Prove the irrationality of numbers Specify neighbourhoods of a number as intervals Determine the magnitude of a given number Perform arithmetic with complex numbers
After you are done with this presentation, come back to these objectives!

Categories

Categories
The set of natural numbers N = {1, 2, 3, ...}

Categories
The set of natural numbers N = {1, 2, 3, ...} The set of integers Z = {..., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...}

Categories
The set of natural numbers N = {1, 2, 3, ...} The set of integers Z = {..., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...} The set of rational numbers Q = {p/q | p, q Z, q 0} Integers are rationals: 2 = 2/1 = 4/2 = ... Specify h.c.f.(p, q) = 1 to get the lowest form

Categories
The set of natural numbers N = {1, 2, 3, ...} The set of integers Z = {..., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...} The set of rational numbers Q = {p/q | p, q Z, q 0} Integers are rationals: 2 = 2/1 = 4/2 = ... Specify h.c.f.(p, q) = 1 to get the lowest form Question: Is this all there is to the classication?

Countability
Rational numbers are countable, meaning, there are as many fractions as there are natural numbers! We know that N x N is countable List out rationals as (1, 1), (1, 2), (2, 1), (1, 3), ... This can be mapped to 1/1, 1/2, 2/1, 1/3, 2/2, ...
(1, 4) (1, 3) (1, 2) (1, 1) (2, 4) (2, 3) (2, 2) (2, 1) (3, 4) (3, 3) (3, 2) (3, 1) (4, 4) (4, 3) (4, 2) (4, 1)

Irrationality

1 1

Irrationality

1 1

Question: Can we express 2 as a fraction?

Irrationality

1 1

Question: Can we express 2 as a fraction? Assume true i.e. 2 = p/q in its lowest form 2/q2 Squaring both sides, 2 = p 2 = 2q2 i.e. p2 is even => p Fact: Only even numbers yield even squares => p is even i.e. p = 2m for some m Z 2 = 4m2 = 2q2 or 2m2 = q2 Squaring, p => q is even i.e. q = 2n for some n Z

Irrationality
Courtesy: Pythagoras of Samos (circa 500 B.C.)

1 1

Question: Can we express 2 as a fraction? Assume true i.e. 2 = p/q in its lowest form 2/q2 Squaring both sides, 2 = p 2 = 2q2 i.e. p2 is even => p Fact: Only even numbers yield even squares => p is even i.e. p = 2m for some m Z 2 = 4m2 = 2q2 or 2m2 = q2 Squaring, p => q is even i.e. q = 2n for some n Z

Real numbers

Real numbers
Bottomline: Numbers like 2 cannot be expressed as fractions - they are called irrationals

Real numbers
Bottomline: Numbers like 2 cannot be expressed as fractions - they are called irrationals The set of real numbers is the collection of rational and irrational numbers - denoted by R

Real numbers
Bottomline: Numbers like 2 cannot be expressed as fractions - they are called irrationals The set of real numbers is the collection of rational and irrational numbers - denoted by R Exercise 1 Categorise the following numbers as rational or irrational (Justify all your answers!) 1, -2, 4, -1/3, 1/2, 1.234

Order
We say that the next integer to 1 is 2 and the previous integer is 0 This concept of next cannot be extended to rationals or real numbers You can only species an ordering Given any two real numbers p and q, They are both equal, i.e. p = q or One is less than the other: p < q or One is greater than the other: p > q There is no next fraction to 1/2 Zillions of fractions exist between 1/3 and 1/2! For instance, (1/3 + 1/2)/2 = 5/12

Interval
a- a a+

Open interval Given a, b R, a < b, we denote by (a, b) the set of numbers {x | a < x < b}. Note: a (a, b) Closed interval [a, b] is the set of numbers {x | a x b} -neighbourhood Given a real number a and > 0, we call the open interval (a - , a + ) the -neighbourhood of a i.e. (a - , a + ) = { x R such that |x- a |< }

Practice
Example 2 The 1/2-neighbourhood of 2 is the open interval (2 - 1/2, 2 + 1/2) = (3/2, 5/2) = (1.5, 2.5) Exercise 3 Specify the following as intervals The 1/10 neighbourhood of 1 Does 1/9 belong to this interval? 1/11? The 1/10 neighbourhood of -1 Does -1/9 belong to this interval? -1/11?

Uncountability
Result: The set of real numbers R is uncountable We will show this is so for a small set [0, 1] Every member r in the interval [0, 1] can be written as 0.c1c2c3..., where the ci are any integer between 0 and 9 Suppose that the set of reals is indeed countable. We will then have an enumeration for R. The rst real can be writen as r1 = 0.a11a12a13... The second real r2 = 0.a21a22a23... and so on Cantors diagonalisation argument We can construct a new number b = 0.b1b2b3... in such a way that b1 is different from a11, b2 is not a22 etc. Question: Has b been accounted for in the enumeration?

Imaginary

Imaginary
Given any non-zero a R, (-a)2 = (+a) 2 0 Thus, square roots occur in pairs

Imaginary

Given any non-zero a R, (-a)2 = (+a) 2 0 Thus, square roots occur in pairs Imagine if negative numbers were also accorded the privilege of square roots Denote by i one of the square roots of (-1) Then -i is the other square root of (-1)

Imaginary

Given any non-zero a R, (-a)2 = (+a) 2 0 Thus, square roots occur in pairs Imagine if negative numbers were also accorded the privilege of square roots Denote by i one of the square roots of (-1) Then -i is the other square root of (-1) Given any negative number -b, with b > 0, we obtain its square roots as (+/-)b i Such expressions are called imaginary

Complex numbers

Complex numbers
Expressions of the form z = c + di, with c,d R are called complex numbers c is called the real part of z (denoted by Re(z)) and d is the imaginary part (Im(z))

Complex numbers
Expressions of the form z = c + di, with c,d R are called complex numbers c is called the real part of z (denoted by Re(z)) and d is the imaginary part (Im(z)) Real numbers are simply complex numbers with zero imaginary part: a = a + 0i

Complex numbers
Expressions of the form z = c + di, with c,d R are called complex numbers c is called the real part of z (denoted by Re(z)) and d is the imaginary part (Im(z)) Real numbers are simply complex numbers with zero imaginary part: a = a + 0i The conjugate of z = c + di is z = c - di

Complex numbers
Expressions of the form z = c + di, with c,d R are called complex numbers c is called the real part of z (denoted by Re(z)) and d is the imaginary part (Im(z)) Real numbers are simply complex numbers with zero imaginary part: a = a + 0i The conjugate of z = c + di is z = c - di Example 4 Let z = 1 - 2i. Then Re(z) = 1 and Im(z) = -2 The conjugate z = 1 + 2i

Arithmetic
Rule: Two complex numbers are equal only if their real and imaginary parts are equal Addition/subtraction (a + bi) + (c + di) = (a + c) + (b + d)i (a + bi) - (c + di) = (a - c) + (b - d)i Multiplication Straightforward: use the fact that i2 = -1 (a + bi)(c + di) = ac + adi + bci - bd i.i = (ac - bd) + (ad + bc)i

Practice

Practice
Exercise 5 Compute with z1 = 1 + i, z2 = -42 z1, z1 + z1, z1 - z1, z1z2, z1z2, z1z1

Practice
Exercise 5 Compute with z1 = 1 + i, z2 = -42 z1, z1 + z1, z1 - z1, z1z2, z1z2, z1z1 Exercise 6 Calculate the complex conjugates for 1 - i, 2 + 3i, 2, 5i

Practice
Exercise 5 Compute with z1 = 1 + i, z2 = -42 z1, z1 + z1, z1 - z1, z1z2, z1z2, z1z1 Exercise 6 Calculate the complex conjugates for 1 - i, 2 + 3i, 2, 5i Exercise 7 Compute the following (1 + i)(1 - i), (1 + i)2

Division
Given a fractional expression 1/(a + bi), we can express it as a complex number c + di Rule - multiply and divide by the conjugate of the denominator Now z = a + bi has the conjugate z = a - bi Note that zz = a2 + b2 = |z|2 Applying the rule, get 1/z = (a - bi)/|z|2, which is [a/(a2 + b2)] - [b/(a2 + b2)] i Question: How do you divide two complex numbers and obtain another complex number?

Magnitude
Recall that the magnitude of a real number a is the non-negative value |a| Distances are typically magnitudes Similarly with complex numbers, we dene the magnitude of z = a + bi as |z| = (+)(a2+b2) Example 8 |4 + 3i| = 42+32 = 25 = 5 Expanding, (4 + 3i)2 gives us 7 + 24i Now |7 + 24i| = 49 + 576 = 625 = 25 Therefore multiplication multiplies magnitudes

Square roots

Square roots
Example 9 Lets compute the square root of i Let (a + bi)2 = i => a 2 + 2ab i - b 2 = i

Square roots
Example 9 Lets compute the square root of i Let (a + bi)2 = i => a 2 + 2ab i - b 2 = i (Rule)=> a2 - b 2 = 0, 2ab = 1 => a2 = b2 Assume a = -b => 2ab = - 2a 2 = 1 (absurd) Thus, a = b => 2ab = 2a2 = 1 => a = +/-1/2 The two square roots of i are (verify!) z1 = a + ib = 1/2 + i/2 and z2 = -a - ib = -1/2 - i/2

History

A A A 1/2 1/2 + 1/4

B B B

Innity () Its concept, not an actual (i.e. real) number Just like the horizon - you cannot pin-point it! The Greeks positively feared it (horror inniti) Motion is impossible (Zenos Paradox) Innite steps => The runner never reaches B From the Yajur Veda (1200-900 B.C.) If you remove a part from innity or add a part to innity, still what remains is innity Bertrand Russell endorses this view in 1920!
Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innity

Illustration
How the Egyptians multiplied numbers Repeated additions and subtractions The only multiplier they used was 2 23 times 27 - add only those multiples marked with a \
\ 1 \ 2 \ 4 8 \ 16 23 27 54 108 216 432 621

Courtesy: Rhind Papyrus, Turnbull Server

References
The world of mathematics Volume 1 Edited by James Newman (Dover, 1956) To Innity and Beyond By Eli Maor (Princeton University Press) For more Egyptian mathematics, check out http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/ HistTopics/Egyptian_mathematics.html
Only two things are innite - the universe and Albert Einstein

human stupidity, and Im not sure about the former...