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Decimals and Real Numbers
Decimals and Real Numbers
We write them as .1 , .2, .3.1,.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 after the
decimal point. Thus .24.24 means \frac{24}{100}10024. 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 of
integers after the decimal point.
However we do not get all rational numbers this way if we stop. We will only get rational
numbers whose denominators are powers of ten. A number like 1/3 will
become .33333.....33333...., where the threes go on forever. (This is often written as .3*.3∗,
the star indicating that what immediately precedes it is to be repeated endlessly)
To get all rational numbers using this decimal notation you must therefore be willing to go on
forever. If you do so, you get even more than the rational numbers. The set of all sequences of
digits starting with a decimal point give you all the rational numbers between 0 and 1 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.....33333...., or .1000.....1000....,
or .14141414.....14141414...., (aka .(14)*.(14)∗).
Now neither you nor I nor any computer are really going to go on forever writing a number so
there is a sense of unreality about this notion of real numbers, but so what? In your imagination
you can visualize a stream of numbers going on forever. That will represent a real number.
If you stop a real number after a finite number of digits, you get a rational number (because all
its entries after where you stopped are zeroes). As a result, the rules of addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division that work for rational numbers can be used to do the same things for
real numbers as well. Fortunately, the digits that are far to the right of the decimal point in a
number have little effect on computations when there are non-zero digits much closer to the
decimal point.