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2.2 Decimals and Real Numbers

1) Decimals can be used to represent rational numbers like fractions by writing them out to infinite digits after the decimal point. This includes numbers like 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3. 2) Not all rational numbers can be represented exactly as decimals, like 1/3 which repeats as 0.333333... indefinitely. 3) By allowing decimals to go on forever, both rational numbers and more ("real numbers") between 0 and 1 can be represented, including numbers that repeat or have patterns.

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66 views1 page

2.2 Decimals and Real Numbers

1) Decimals can be used to represent rational numbers like fractions by writing them out to infinite digits after the decimal point. This includes numbers like 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3. 2) Not all rational numbers can be represented exactly as decimals, like 1/3 which repeats as 0.333333... indefinitely. 3) By allowing decimals to go on forever, both rational numbers and more ("real numbers") between 0 and 1 can be represented, including numbers that repeat or have patterns.

Uploaded by

Rakesh S India
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1/22/12 2.

2 Decimals and Real Numbers


1/1 www-math.mit.edu/djk/calculus_beginners/chapter02/section02.html
Home Calculus for Beginners Chapter 2 Tools Glossary Index Up Previous Next
2.2 Decimals and Real Nmbers
We have a nice way to represent numbers including Iractions, and that is as decimal expansions. Suppose we consider
numbers like , (which is the same as ), , and so on.
We write them as .1, .2, .3, and so on. The decimal point is a code that tells us that the digit just beyond it is to be
divided by ten.
We can extend this to integers divided by one hundred, by adding a second digit aIter the decimal point. Thus .24
means . And we can keep right on going and describe integers divided by a thousand or by a million and so on, by
longer and longer strings oI integers aIter the decimal point.
However we do not get all rational numbers this way iI we stop. We will only get rational numbers whose
denominators are powers oI ten. A number like 1/3 will become .33333...., where the threes go on Iorever. (This is
oIten written as .3*, the star indicating that what precedes it is to be repeated endlessly)
To get all rational numbers using this decimal notation you must thereIore be willing to go on Iorever. II you do so,
you get even more than the rational numbers. The set oI all sequences oI digits starting with a decimal point give you
all the rational numbers and even more. What you get are called the real numbers between 0 and 1. The rational
numbers turn out to be those that repeat endlessly, like .33333...., or .1000...., or .14141414...., (aka .(14)*).
Now neither you or I or any computer are really going to go on Iorever writing a number so there is a sense oI
unreality about this notion oI real numbers, but so what? In your imagination you can visualize a stream oI numbers
going on Iorever. That will represent a real number.
II you stop a real number aIter a Iinite number oI digits, you get a rational number, and as a result, the rules oI
addition, subtraction, ugliIication and derision that work Ior rational numbers can be used to do the same things Ior real
numbers as well. Fortunately, the digits that are Iar to the right oI the decimal point in a number have little eIIect on
computations when there are non-zero digits much closer to the decimal point.
Since we cannot in real liIe go on Iorever to describe a non-rational real number, to do so we have to describe it some
other way. Here is an example oI such a description.
We deIine the number that has decimal expansion .1101001000100001....; between each consecutive pair oI 1's there
is a number oI 0's that is one more than between the previous consecutive pair oI 1's. This number is not rational; it
does not repeat itselI.
We do not have to, but just Ior the Iun oI it, we will go one step Iurther and extend our numbers once more.
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