axiomatic definition of the real numbers
Axiomatic definition of the real numbers
The real numbers consist of a set together with mappings and and arelation satisfyingthe following conditions:
- 1.
is an Abelian group
:
- (a)
For , we have
- (b)
there exists an element such that for all ,
- (c)
every has an inverse
such that .
- (a)
- 2.
is an Abelian group:
- (a)
For , we have
- (b)
there exists an element such that for all ,
- (c)
every has an inverse such that .
- (a)
- 3.
The operation
is distributive over : If , then
- 4.
is a total order
:
- (a)
(transitivity) if , , and , then ,
- (b)
(trichotomy) precisely one of the below alternativeshold:
For convenience we make the following notational definitions: means , means either or , and means either or .
- (a)
- 5.
The operations and are compatible with the order :
- (a)
If , , and , then .
- (b)
If , , with and , then .
- (a)
- 6.
has the least upper bound property: If ,then an element is an for if
If is non-empty, we then say that is bounded from above.That has the least upper bound property means thatif is bounded from above, it has a least upper bound . That is, has an upper bound such that if is any upper bound from ,then .
Here it should be emphasized that from the above we can not deduce thata set with operations exists. To settle this question sucha set has to be explicitly constructed. However, this can be done in various ways, asdiscussed on this page (http://planetmath.org/RealNumber).One can also show the above conditions uniquely determine the real numbers(up to an isomorphism). The proof of this can be found onthis page (http://planetmath.org/EveryOrderedFieldWithTheLeastUpperBoundPropertyIsIsomorphicToTheRealNumbers).
Basic properties
In condensed form, the above conditions state that is an orderedfield with the least upper bound property. In particular is a ring, and is a group, and we have the following basic properties:
Lemma 1.
Suppose .
- 1.
The additive inverse is unique (proof) (http://planetmath.org/UniquenessOfAdditiveIdentityInARing).
- 2.
The additive identity is unique (proof) (http://planetmath.org/UniquenessOfAdditiveIdentityInARing2).
- 3.
(proof) (http://planetmath.org/1cdotAA).
- 4.
(proof) (http://planetmath.org/XcdotYXcdotY).
- 5.
(proof) (http://planetmath.org/0cdotA0)
- 6.
The multiplicative inverse is unique (proof) (http://planetmath.org/UniquenessOfInverseForGroups).
- 7.
If are non-zero, then (proof) (http://planetmath.org/InverseOfAProduct).
In view of property 2, we can write simply instead of and .
Because of the additive inverse of a real number is unique (by property 1 above), and , we see that the additive inverse of is , or that . Similarly, if , then (or we’ll end up with ), and therefore by Property 6 above, has a unique multiplicative inverse. Since , we see that is the multiplicative inverse of . In other words, .
For let us also define , which is calledthe difference of and .By commutativity, . It is also common to leave out themultiplication symbol and simply write . Suppose and is non-zero. Then divided (http://planetmath.org/Division) by is defined as
In consequence, if and are non-zero, then
- •
,
- •
.
For example,