Lecture

Properties of Real Numbers

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In course

MATH-101(d): Analysis I

Étudier les concepts fondamentaux d'analyse et le calcul différentiel et intégral des fonctions réelles d'une variable. ...

Description

This lecture covers additional properties of real numbers, including countability and bijections between IN* and 2. It demonstrates that IR is not countable through a proof by contradiction, showing the impossibility of numbering elements of [0, 1].

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Mathematics

Mathematical logic: Set theory

Related concepts (32)

Real number

In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a continuous one-dimensional quantity such as a distance, duration or temperature. Here, continuous means that pairs of values can have arbitrarily small differences. Every real number can be almost uniquely represented by an infinite decimal expansion. The real numbers are fundamental in calculus (and more generally in all mathematics), in particular by their role in the classical definitions of limits, continuity and derivatives.

Proof by contradiction

In logic, proof by contradiction is a form of proof that establishes the truth or the validity of a proposition, by showing that assuming the proposition to be false leads to a contradiction. Although it is quite freely used in mathematical proofs, not every school of mathematical thought accepts this kind of nonconstructive proof as universally valid. More broadly, proof by contradiction is any form of argument that establishes a statement by arriving at a contradiction, even when the initial assumption is not the negation of the statement to be proved.

Axiom of countability

In mathematics, an axiom of countability is a property of certain mathematical objects that asserts the existence of a countable set with certain properties. Without such an axiom, such a set might not provably exist.

Construction of the real numbers

In mathematics, there are several equivalent ways of defining the real numbers. One of them is that they form a complete ordered field that does not contain any smaller complete ordered field. Such a definition does not prove that such a complete ordered field exists, and the existence proof consists of constructing a mathematical structure that satisfies the definition. The article presents several such constructions. They are equivalent in the sense that, given the result of any two such constructions, there is a unique isomorphism of ordered field between them.

Contradiction

In traditional logic, a contradiction occurs when a proposition conflicts either with itself or established fact. It is often used as a tool to detect disingenuous beliefs and bias. Illustrating a general tendency in applied logic, Aristotle's law of noncontradiction states that "It is impossible that the same thing can at the same time both belong and not belong to the same object and in the same respect.

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