Sets of Numbers
is the set of natural numbers. These are the numbers you learned to count as a small child. It consists of all the positive integers.
is the set of all integers. These are the numbers you learned when you were little with both pluses and minuses. It consists of all positive and negative integers.
(the symbol is read “such that”) is the set of rational numbers. This is the set of all fractions where the numerator and denominator are integers. Remember that an integer itself is also a fraction, as any integer is equal to itself divided by ().
( the symbol is read as “without”) is the set of irrational numbers. These are numbers like , , and all numbers that have an infinite number of decimals without any repeating pattern. Irrational numbers can’t be written as fractions.
is the set of real numbers, which is all the numbers on the real number line.