MATH 17: HANDOUT FOR SECTION 1.2-1.

3 OPERATIONS AND PROPERTIES OF REAL AND COMPLEX NUMBERS

EQUALITY AXIOMS FOR REAL NUMBERS  Associative Property for Addition: (a  b)  c  a  (b  c)

 Reflexive Property of Equality:  Associative Property for Multiplication: (ab)c  a(bc)
For any a R , a  a .  Distributive Property of Multiplication over Addition:
 Symmetry Property of Equality: a(b  c)  ab  ac
For a, b R , if a  b then b  a . (a  b)c  ac  bc
 Transitive Property of Equality:
For a, b, c R , if a  b and b  c then a  c . Definition Identity Element
 Let A be a set closed under the operation *. An element e of the
Definition A set A is closed under the operation * if for any x , y  A , set A is called the identity if for any x  A , x * e  x and e * x  x .
x yA . Definition Existence of the Additive Identity
 There is a real number 0 such that for any a R , a  0  a .
Remark: There are two (most) basic operations on numbers: Definition Inverse of a  A
ADDITION AND MULTIPLICATION.  Let A be a set closed under * with identity e. Given a  A , an
element a ' of the set A is called the inverse of a if a * a '  e and
CLOSURE AXIOMS FOR THE SET OF REAL NUMBERS a '* a  e .
 Closure Property for Addition: Definition Existence of Additive Inverses
If a, b R then a  b R .  For every a R , there is a real number a such that a   a   0
 Closure Property for Multiplication: The element a is called the negative of a, opposite of a, or
If a, b R then ab R . additive inverse of a.

MORE EQUALITY AXIOMS FOR REAL NUMBERS Definition Subtraction

 Addition Property of Equality:  For any a, b R , a  b  a  (b) .
Let a, b, c R . If a  b then a  c  b  c .
 Multiplication Property of Equality: Theorems: Let a, b and c be real numbers.
Let a, b, c R . If a  b then ac  bc . 1. If a  c  b  c then a  b . (Cancellation Law for Addition)
2. a  0  0 (Zero Property)
SOME PROPERTIES OF R 3. (a)  b  (a  b)
Let a, b, c R . 4. (a)  (b)  a  b
 Commutative Property for Addition: a  b  b  a 5. (a  b)  (a)  (b)
 Commutative Property for Multiplication: ab  ba 6. There is a unique solution to a  x  b .

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Definition Existence of Multiplicative Identity Definition Rational Number
 There is a real number 1 such that for any a R , 1  a  a .  A real number a which can be written as a quotient (or ratio) of
Definition Existence of Multiplicative Inverses an integer p and a nonzero integer q is called a rational number
 For every a R such that a  0 , there is a real number 1 / a such  The set of all rational numbers is given by
that a  1 / a   1 . Q  { x |x  p / q where p, q  Z , q  0}
 We call 1 / a the multiplicative inverse of a , or the reciprocal of  In decimal representation, rational numbers are either terminating
or non-terminating but repeating decimals.
a.
Definition Irrational Number
Theorems: Let a , b and c be real numbers.
 A real number which is not rational is called an irrational number.
1. If ac  bc then a  b . (Cancellation Law for Multiplication)
 We denote the set of irrational numbers by Q’ or QC.
2. If ab  0 , then either a  0 or b  0 .
3. If a and b are nonzero then 1 / (ab)  (1 / a)(1 / b) .  Elements of Q’ of the form n p (read “nth root of p) ,where p is a
4. If a is nonzero then there is a unique solution to the equation real number and n is an integer greater than 1, are called radicals.
ax  b . In n p , p is called the radicand and n is called the index.

Definition Division Definition Principal Root

 For any a, b R such that b  0 , a / b  a  1 / b .  Let n be an integer greater than 1 and p be a real number.
o If n is even and,
Theorem: Let a, b, c, and d be real numbers.  If p is nonnegative then n p is the positive nth
1. a /1  a root of p.
2. a / a  1  If p is negative, then n p is undefined.
3. (a / b)(c / d)  ac / bd ( b  0 and d  0 ) o If n is odd and p is negative, then n p  n p
4. If a / b  c / d then ad  bc . ( b  0 and d  0 )
5. If a / b  c / b then a  c . ( b  0 ) OPERATIONS ON RADICALS
6. If a / b  0 then 1 / (a / b)  b / a . Let p, n and m be non-negative integers.
7. If a / b  0 then (c / d) / (a / b)  cb / ad . ( b  0 and d  0 ) Addition: x n p  y n p  ( x  y)n p
8. (a / b)  (c / d)  (ad  bc) / bd ( b  0 and d  0 )
Multiplication: n
p  n q  n pq

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 n
p p Note: If a is less than or equal to b, we write a  b . If a is greater than or
Division:  n , q ≠ 0. equal to b, we write a  b .
n
q q
Root of a root: n m
p  nm p Definition A real number is positive if a  0 and negative if a  0 . The
number 0 is neither positive nor negative.
The set of real numbers consists of all rational and irrational numbers.
ORDER AXIOMS
That is, R  Q  Q ' .
 Trichotomy Axiom: For any a, b R , exactly one of the following
LAWS OF EXPONENTS holds: a  b , a  b or b  a .
Let m and n be positive integers and a, b be real numbers.  Addition Axiom of Order: If a, b, c R and a  b , then a  c  b  c
 a0  1 provided a  0
 Multiplication Axiom of Order: If a, b, c R , a  b and c  0 , then
ac  bc .
 aman  amn
am Theorems: Let a, b, c R . Then
  amn provided a  0
n
a 1. If a  0 then a  0 .
 a n 
1
provided a  0 2. If a  b then a  b .
an 3. Either a2  0 or a2  0 .
 am  4. If a  b and c  0 , then ac  bc .
n
  amn
5. If a  0 then 1 / a  0 .
  abn  anbn
nn Remark: There is a one-to-one correspondence between the set of real
a a numbers and the set of points in a line.
    provided b  0
b bn
Definition Distance between two points on the real number line
Definition “Less than” relation If x and y are points on the real number line, the distance between x and y
 Let a, b R . Assume that a  b means that “a is less than b”
(written d(x , y) ) is given by d(x , y)  (x  y)2 .
Definition “Greater than” relation
 We say that a is greater than b (written a  b ) if b  a .

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DEFINTION: (Absolute Value) The absolute value of a number x is COMPLEX NUMBER SYSTEM
 x if x  0 Definition Complex Number
defined as | x | x2    A complex number is a number of the form x  yi where x and y
 x if x  0
are real numbers and i2  1 .
Remarks:
Theorems: Let a and b be real numbers.  i (as well as x + yi, y  0 ) is not a real number
1. |a| a |a|  In x  yi , we call x the real part and y the imaginary part . A
2. |ab||a||b| complex number of the form yi where y is nonzero is called a pure
a |a| imaginary.
3. If b  0 then  .
b | b|  Two complex numbers x1  y1i and x2  y2i are equal if and only
4. |a  b||a||b| (Triangle Inequality) if a  c and b  d .
Definition Conjugate of a complex number
Definition Upper and Lower Bound  The conjugate of a complex number x  yi is the complex number
 A number u is called an upper bound of a set S if x  u for all x  yi .
x S . Definition Addition and Multiplication of Complex Numbers
 Similarly, a number l is called a lower bound of a set S if x  u for  Let x1  y1i and x2  y2i be complex numbers. Then
all x  S . o (x1  y1i)  (x2  y2i)  (x1  x2 )  (y1  y2 )i
o (x1  y1i)(x2  y2i)  (x1x2  y1y2 )  (x1y2  x2y1 )i
Definition Least Upper Bound and Greatest Lower Bound Remarks:
 An upper bound b of a set S is called the least upper bound (LUB)  Additive identity in C is 0  0  0i .
if no upper bound is less than b.
 Additive inverse of x  yi is  x  yi .
 Similarly, a lower bound b of a set S is called the greatest lower
bound (GLB) if no lower bound is greater than b. x  yi
 Multiplicative inverse of x  yi is
x2  y2
Completeness Axiom  x   y 
  i.
 Every subset of R that has an upper bound has a LUB in R.  x2  y2   x2  y2 
   
 Equivalently, every subset of R that has a lower bound has a GLB
in R.
Note: Subtraction and division in C are defined in the same manner as
they are in R.

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