Cheat Sheet (Understandable Even if You’re

Half-Asleep)
Number Looks What It Means (Simple) Example
Type Like

Natural 1, 2, 3… Counting numbers, started with pebbles and 3 apples

fingers

Whole 0, 1, 2… Counting + zero (nothing is something!) 0 pens

Integers –3, –2… Whole numbers and their opposites –5 rupees

0… owed

Rational ½, ¾ Can be written as a fraction (a/b) 5/6

Irrational √2, π Can’t be written as a/b. Never ends, never 3.141592…

repeats.

Real All above! Every number you can find on a number line All of them

Part 1: History of Real Numbers

(Explained Like You’re 3)
1. What’s a Number, Really?
A number is like an invisible idea that helps us count things or measure stuff.​
A numeral is just the symbol or word we write to show that number.

Think of it like this:

●​ Number = the idea of 3 apples​

●​ Numeral = the “3” you write​

We use numbers for:

●​ Counting toys (1, 2, 3…)​

●​ Measuring milk in a cup​

 ●​ Phone numbers​

●​ Codes, labels, money​

2. Life Before Numbers (Imagine That!)

A long, long time ago, people didn’t have any numbers. But they still had animals and food.
So how did they count?

There’s a cute story: A little shepherd boy had sheep. Every morning, he sent them out.​
To make sure none were lost, he dropped one pebble in a bowl for each sheep.​
When they came back, he took out one pebble per sheep.​
If he had pebbles left, it meant a sheep was missing!

This is how counting started: with pebbles, sticks, tally marks, and bones!

3. Natural Numbers Were Born

The first numbers people used were just 1, 2, 3, 4, …​
These are called Natural Numbers.

They used:

●​ Fingers​

●​ Sticks​

●​ Lines on cave walls​

That’s how early people counted their stuff!

4. Sumerians – The Math Wizards of 5000 BC

The Sumerians lived near today’s Iraq, and they were so smart. They:

●​ Built cities​

●​ Invented farming​
 ●​ Measured time using the Sun​

●​ Wrote on clay tablets (cuneiform!)​

They created one of the first numeral systems.

5. Babylonians – Timekeepers!
The Babylonians were like the Sumerians’ math grandchildren.

They:

●​ Used base 60 (yep, that’s why we have 60 minutes in an hour!)​

●​ Wrote numbers with wedge shapes in clay​

●​ Did serious math (even algebra!)​

But… they didn’t have a symbol for zero.​

They left a space instead, which made things confusing.

6. Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans

●​ Egyptians used tallies and special symbols for 10 and 100.​

●​ Greeks used Attic Numerals and geometry ideas.​

●​ Romans used I = 1, V = 5, X = 10… but no zero.​

They didn’t yet understand the idea of "nothing."

7. The Hero: Zero Enters the Chat

Zero didn’t just appear magically.

●​ Mayans used a symbol for zero in their calendar (but lived far away from other
civilizations).​
 ●​ Brahmagupta from India gave zero a symbol in 628 AD.​

●​ Al-Khwarizmi (a Muslim genius) explained it and used the word “Sifr”.​

Europe learned about zero from Arab traders.​

Fibonacci, an Italian boy, saw it and said, “Whoa. This changes everything.”​
He wrote a book and boom—zero spreads across Europe.

Now we had 0, 1, 2, 3… → Whole Numbers.

8. Negative Numbers – Owe Me Some Coins

Imagine:

●​ You have no money.​

●​ But you owe your sister 5 rupees.​

●​ Your money is –5.​

That’s how people thought of negative numbers:

●​ Losing money = negative​

●​ Going below zero = negative​

Brahmagupta wrote rules for using them in the 7th century.​

Now we had Integers: … –3, –2, –1, 0, 1, 2, 3…

9. Rational Numbers – Sharing is Caring

Pythagoras (a Greek math guy) loved shapes and numbers.

He started using fractions:

●​ Like ½, ⅓, ¾ — which are ratios​

That gave us rational numbers: numbers that can be written as a/b

10. Irrational Numbers – The Math Plot Twist
One of Pythagoras’ students, Hippasus, was working on a triangle.

It had 2 sides = 1 unit.​

He tried to find the diagonal and found:​
Diagonal = √2

But he couldn’t write √2 as a simple fraction!

That’s when they discovered:

●​ Numbers like √2, π, and e​

●​ Can’t be written as a/b​

●​ Never repeat or end​

They called them irrational (not silly — just not “ratios”).

11. Finally: Real Numbers

All these:

●​ Natural​

●​ Whole​

●​ Integers​

●​ Rational​

●​ Irrational​

Come together to make one big family:​

Real Numbers

🌈 EXPLAINED LIKE YOU’RE 3 YEARS OLD:

Imagine numbers like a huge family living on a number line.
 ●​ First, there were Counting Numbers (1, 2, 3, 4…). We use them to count our toys,
candies, books. These are called Natural Numbers.​

●​ Then we added 0 to show nothing. Now we had a new family called Whole
Numbers.​

●​ Later, someone said: “Hey! What if I owe you 3 candies?” That’s how we got
Negative Numbers like –1, –2, –3. Now we had a big family called Integers.​

●​ Then came fractions, like if you cut a chocolate into 2 parts and give me 1, that’s
1/2. These are Rational Numbers.​

●​ But there were some weird numbers, like √2 or π, that go on forever and never
repeat. We call them Irrational Numbers (they’re wild!).​

●​ Put all of these together — and BOOM 💥 — we get the Real Numbers.​
They live on the number line peacefully. 🧡

🧠 CHEAT SHEET: Introduction to Real Numbers

Set Symbo Examples Notes
l

Natural Numbers N 1, 2, 3, 4… Counting numbers

Whole Numbers W 0, 1, 2, 3… Natural + Zero

Integers Z –3, –2, –1, 0, 1, 2… Positive and negative whole

numbers

Rational Q 1/2, –3, 0.75, 7 Can be written as p/q

Numbers

Irrational √2, π, √3, Cannot be written as p/q

Numbers 0.1010010001…

Real Numbers R All of the above Found on the number line

combined

Properties of Real Numbers

1. Commutative Property
Addition: The order of numbers does not affect the sum.​
​
nginx​
CopyEdit​
a + b = b + a

●​

Multiplication: The order of numbers does not affect the product.​

​
java​
CopyEdit​
a × b = b × a

●​
●​ Does not apply to: Subtraction and Division.​

2. Associative Property
Addition: The grouping of numbers does not affect the sum.​
​
r​
CopyEdit​
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c)

●​

Multiplication: The grouping of numbers does not affect the product.​

​
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(a × b) × c = a × (b × c)

●​
●​ Does not apply to: Subtraction and Division.​

3. Distributive Property
Multiplication distributes over addition or subtraction.​
​
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CopyEdit​
a × (b + c) = (a × b) + (a × c)

●​

Example:​
​
CopyEdit​
2 × (3 + 4) = (2 × 3) + (2 × 4)
 ●​ 2 × 7 = 6 + 8​

4. Identity Property
Additive Identity: Adding zero to a number does not change the number.​
​
nginx​
CopyEdit​
a + 0 = a

●​

Multiplicative Identity: Multiplying a number by one does not change the number.​
​
nginx​
CopyEdit​
a × 1 = a

●​

5. Inverse Property
Additive Inverse: The sum of a number and its opposite (negative) is zero.​
​
nginx​
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a + (-a) = 0

●​

Multiplicative Inverse: The product of a number and its reciprocal is one.​

​
bash​
CopyEdit​
a × 1/a = 1

●​

6. Zero Property of Multiplication

●​ Multiplying any number by zero results in zero.​

​
nginx​
CopyEdit​
a × 0 = 0

Properties of Real Numbers

Real numbers are like the foundation of a giant math-building 🏰 , and the properties are like
the rules that help everything stay in place. Let's go through them one by one!

1. Commutative Property (of Addition and Multiplication)

💡 What it means? Commutative Property is about the order in which you do things.
In simple terms: You can change the order, and the answer stays the same!

Examples:

●​ Addition:​
3 + 5 = 5 + 3​
No matter the order, you’ll get the same result!​

●​ Multiplication:​
2 × 4 = 4 × 2​

📝 Notes:
●​ Commutative property applies to both addition and multiplication.​

●​ Does NOT apply to subtraction or division.​

(Try it: 5 − 3 ≠ 3 − 5)​

2. Associative Property (of Addition and Multiplication)

💡 What it means?​
The grouping doesn’t matter — as long as the order of the numbers stays the same.

In simpler words: You can group numbers differently, and the answer stays the same.

Examples:

●​ Addition:​
(3 + 5) + 2 = 3 + (5 + 2)​
No matter how you group, the result is the same.​

●​ Multiplication:​
(2 × 4) × 5 = 2 × (4 × 5)​

📝 Notes:
●​ Works with both addition and multiplication.​
 ●​ Does NOT apply to subtraction or division.​
(Try: (5 − 3) − 2 ≠ 5 − (3 − 2))​

3. Distributive Property

💡 What it means?​
This property connects multiplication and addition (or subtraction).

Multiplying a number by a group of numbers added together is the same as multiplying each
number separately and then adding the results.

Example:

●​ a × (b + c) = (a × b) + (a × c)​

For numbers:

●​ 2 × (3 + 4) = (2 × 3) + (2 × 4)​

✅
2 × 7 = 6 + 8​
14 = 14 ​

📝 Notes:
●​ Applies to multiplication over addition or subtraction.​

4. Identity Property (of Addition and Multiplication)

💡 What it means?​
Identity Property means that there’s a special number that leaves other numbers unchanged
when you add or multiply by it.

Examples:

●​ Additive Identity (Zero):​

a + 0 = a​
Adding zero to any number leaves it unchanged.​
Example: 5 + 0 = 5​

●​ Multiplicative Identity (One):​

a × 1 = a​
Multiplying any number by one leaves it unchanged.​
 Example: 4 × 1 = 4​

📝 Notes:
●​ The additive identity is 0.​

●​ The multiplicative identity is 1.​

5. Inverse Property (of Addition and Multiplication)

💡 What it means?​
Inverse Property means there’s a number that, when added or multiplied to the original
number, will give you the identity element (0 for addition, 1 for multiplication).

Examples:

●​ Additive Inverse:​
a + (−a) = 0​
Example: 5 + (−5) = 0​

●​ Multiplicative Inverse:​
a × 1/a = 1​
Example: 4 × 1/4 = 1​

📝 Notes:
●​ The additive inverse of any number is its negative.​

●​ The multiplicative inverse of a number is its reciprocal.​

6. Zero Property of Multiplication

💡 What it means?​
Zero Property says that multiplying any number by 0 gives you 0.

Example:

●​ 5 × 0 = 0​

📝 Notes:
 ●​ Applies only to multiplication.​

●​ It’s like if you have nothing (zero) of something, the total is zero.​

Properties Cheat Sheet (For Quick Review)

●​ Commutative Property:​

○​ a + b = b + a​

○​ a × b = b × a​

●​ Associative Property:​

○​ (a + b) + c = a + (b + c)​

○​ (a × b) × c = a × (b × c)​

●​ Distributive Property:​

○​ a × (b + c) = (a × b) + (a × c)​

●​ Identity Property:​

○​ Additive: a + 0 = a​

○​ Multiplicative: a × 1 = a​

●​ Inverse Property:​

○​ Additive Inverse: a + (−a) = 0​

○​ Multiplicative Inverse: a × 1/a = 1​

●​ Zero Property of Multiplication:​

○​ a × 0 = 0​