Page 1 Math 43 – Preparation for Liberal Art Majors Handout 1.5 – Are you “rational” or “irrational”? Foxtrot By Bill Amend 1). Group work: In your group of 2 or 3 students, make a list of all the DIFFERENT numbers you can come up with. In mathematics, the number system evolved through time: • N: At first, “numbers” meant something you can count, like how many sheep a farmer owns. These are called Natural Numbers (or counting numbers). • W: At some point, the idea of “zero” came to be considered as a number. If the farmer does not have any sheep, then the number of sheep that the farmer owns is zero. Natural Numbers together with “zero” make up the Whole Numbers. • Z: Even more abstract than zero is the idea of negative numbers. If, in addition to not having any sheep, the farmer owes someone 3 sheep, you could say that the number of sheep that the farmer owns is negative 3. The expanded set of numbers that we get by including negative versions of the counting numbers is called the Integers. • Q: The next generalization that we can make is to include the idea of fractions. While it is unlikely that a farmer owns a fractional number of sheep, many other things in real life are measured in fractions, like a half-cup of sugar. If we add fractions to the set of integers, we get the set of Rational Numbers. • H: There are numbers that cannot be expressed as a fraction, and these numbers are called Irrational because they are not rational. 1 -1 13 if if tz 0.25 's 22 5 ! IT a IN : / : t
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Math 43 – Preparation for Liberal Art Majors Handout 1.5 ... · Page 1 Math 43 – Preparation for Liberal Art Majors Handout 1.5 – Are you “rational” or “irrational”?
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