The Set of Natural Numbers
What's the biggest number you can think of? Now add $1$ to it. Is there a whole number between $7$ and $8$? Natural numbers follow a few simple rules, and people have written them in many ways: wedges on clay tablets, Roman letters, and the 0s and 1s inside your phone. Let's see how it all fits together.
The set of natural numbers
Many US books call this set the whole numbers and start the counting numbers at $1$. On this page $\mathbb{N}$ includes $0$, like the practice problems.
The number line puts natural numbers in order. The marks are equally spaced, you start at $0$, and each step to the right adds $1$.
Plot the points corresponding to the natural numbers $A = 2$, $B = 7$ and $C = 11$ on the following number line.
Plot the points corresponding to the natural numbers $A = 2$, $B = 7$ and $C = 11$ on the following number line.
State whether the following statements about the set of natural numbers ($\mathbb{N}$) are true or false, justifying your answer with an example or a counterexample: a)…
State whether the following statements about the set of natural numbers ($\mathbb{N}$) are true or false, justifying your answer with an example or a counterexample:
- a) The set $\mathbb{N}$ is a finite set because we can always write the largest possible number.
- b) Between any two natural numbers, for example $4$ and $5$, there is always another natural number.
- c) Every natural number has a successor and, except for the first one, they all have a predecessor.
- d) The decimal numeral system is positional because the value of a digit depends on its position.
Place value and expanded form
In our decimal system we use ten digits, $0$ to $9$. It is positional: the value of a digit depends on where it sits. Each place is worth $10$ times the place to its right.
We read a big number in groups of three digits, separated by commas. The number $5{,}038{,}246$ is read "five million, thirty-eight thousand, two hundred forty-six." One billion is $1{,}000{,}000{,}000 = 10^9$.
The expanded form writes a number as a sum of each digit times its power of $10$. Some problems call this the polynomial expansion.
In the decimal numeral system, the value of a digit depends on its position. In the number 7,475, indicate what value the first "7" (starting from the left) represents…
In the decimal numeral system, the value of a digit depends on its position. In the number 7,475, indicate what value the first "7" (starting from the left) represents and what value the second "7" represents. How many times larger is the first compared to the second?
A famous streamer has reached the figure of $2.045.703$ subscribers on his channel. Perform the polynomial expansion of this number using powers of base $10$.
A famous streamer has reached the figure of $2.045.703$ subscribers on his channel. Perform the polynomial expansion of this number using powers of base $10$.
The estimated population of a social network in the year 2023 reached the figure of $1.205.040.300$ active users. a) Write how this number is read in English. b) Perform…
The estimated population of a social network in the year 2023 reached the figure of $1.205.040.300$ active users.
- a) Write how this number is read in English.
- b) Perform its polynomial expansion using powers of base $10$.
- c) What is the place value of the digit $5$ in this number?
Digits, rounding and palindromes
Place value lets you answer many questions about a number just by looking at its digits.
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Complete hundreds in a number: cover the tens and ones digits. The number that is left is the count. In $52{,}619$ there are $526$ complete hundreds.
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Round to a place: look at the digit just to the right. If it is $5$ or more, round up. Otherwise keep the digit. Then fill the rest with zeros.
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Swap digits: rewrite the number with those two digits exchanged.
A palindrome reads the same forward and backward, like $4{,}774$. A four-digit palindrome always looks like $\overline{abba}$: the first and last digits are equal, and so are the middle two.
So the digit sum of a four-digit palindrome is always $a + b + b + a = 2(a + b)$. Use this to turn the clues into small equations.
Consider the natural number $N = 47.082$. a) If we swap the thousands digit with the tens digit, what is the difference between the original number and the new number…
Consider the natural number $N = 47.082$.
- a) If we swap the thousands digit with the tens digit, what is the difference between the original number and the new number obtained?
- b) How many complete hundreds are there in total in the number $N$?
- c) Write the closest natural number to $N$ that ends in three zeros.
A four-digit natural number meets the following conditions: It is a palindromic number (it reads the same from left to right as from right to left). The sum of its…
A four-digit natural number meets the following conditions:
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It is a palindromic number (it reads the same from left to right as from right to left).
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The sum of its digits is $22$.
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The thousands digit is three times the hundreds digit.
Determine, with reasons, what number it is and represent it using its polynomial expansion.
Order of operations
When an expression mixes several operations, the answer would change depending on the order, so everyone follows the same rules.
You may know this as PEMDAS. Remember that M and D share a level, and so do A and S. Go left to right within a level. Some problems write division with a colon, as in $36 : 4$. It means $36 \div 4$, and a dot, as in $3 \cdot 8$, means $3 \times 8$.
Sometimes a problem gives the result and asks you to insert parentheses to make it true. Try the groupings that change the order, and compute each one.
In a mathematical logic challenge, you are given an expression that is missing parentheses for the result to be correct. Place the necessary parentheses so that the…
In a mathematical logic challenge, you are given an expression that is missing parentheses for the result to be correct. Place the necessary parentheses so that the equality holds true:
$$5 + 3 \cdot 8 - 6^2 : 4 + 2 = 25$$Once solved, explain step by step the order of operations you followed to reach the result of $25$.
The distributive property
Suppose a group buys $14$ tickets at $\$9$ and $14$ more at $\$11$. You can find each cost and add them, or you can notice that there are $14$ tickets in both parts.
The same idea helps with expressions that have letters. If the quantity is the same in each term, factor it out. Suppose $x = y = z = 20$ and the cost is $4x + 6y + 10z$:
A courier company organizes its deliveries into three types of boxes. The shipping cost is calculated with the following expression, where $x$ is the number of small…
A courier company organizes its deliveries into three types of boxes. The shipping cost is calculated with the following expression, where $x$ is the number of small boxes, $y$ the number of medium boxes and $z$ the number of large boxes:
$$Coste = 12 \cdot x + 18 \cdot y + 24 \cdot z$$If a customer sends $15$ small boxes, $15$ medium boxes and $15$ large boxes:
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Calculate the total cost of the operation.
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Apply the distributive property to extract the common factor and rewrite the expression so that it is easier to calculate for the same number of boxes of each type.
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If the price of each box goes up by $\$2$, how would the common factor change?
Powers, squares and cubes
A power is repeated multiplication of the same number. In $2^6$ the base is $2$ and the exponent is $6$: it means six factors of $2$.
$$2^6 = 2 \times 2 \times 2 \times 2 \times 2 \times 2 = 64$$An exponent of $2$ is a square (a square with side $n$ has area $n^2$). An exponent of $3$ is a cube (a cube with edge $n$ has volume $n^3$). The numbers $1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144, 169, \ldots$ are perfect squares, and $1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, \ldots$ are perfect cubes. The square root goes backward: $\sqrt{36} = 6$ because $6^2 = 36$.
Powers also describe growth by repeating. Aaliyah texts a meme to $3$ friends. In each round, everyone who just received it forwards it to $3$ new people.
| Round | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New people | $1$ | $3$ | $9$ | $27$ | $81$ |
| As a power | $3^0$ | $3^1$ | $3^2$ | $3^3$ | $3^4$ |
The exponent counts how many times you repeated the step: the number of rounds. For something that repeats every fixed time, the exponent is the elapsed time divided by the time for one step. If it takes $30$ minutes per step, $3$ hours means $3 \times 60 \div 30 = 6$ steps.
Lucy wants to organize her collection of $36$ stickers to form a perfect square on the cover of her album. How many stickers must she put on each side of the square so…
Lucy wants to organize her collection of $36$ stickers to form a perfect square on the cover of her album. How many stickers must she put on each side of the square so that none are left over? Draw a simple diagram of the solution.
In a logistics warehouse, shoe boxes are organized to form perfect cubes. If a shelf has a square base of $7 \times 7$ boxes and they are stacked to reach the same…
In a logistics warehouse, shoe boxes are organized to form perfect cubes. If a shelf has a square base of $7 \times 7$ boxes and they are stacked to reach the same height to form a cube:
- a) How many boxes are there in total on the shelf? Express it as a power and calculate the value.
- b) If $150$ boxes are sold, what is the maximum number of boxes that can still form a perfect square on the warehouse floor? How many boxes would be left over in that case?
Imagine a bacterium that reproduces by binary fission (divides into two) every $20$ minutes. If we start with a single bacterium at 8:00 a.m.: 1. How many bacteria will…
Imagine a bacterium that reproduces by binary fission (divides into two) every $20$ minutes. If we start with a single bacterium at 8:00 a.m.:
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How many bacteria will there be at 10:00 a.m.? Express it as a power.
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Represent the situation using a diagram or table that relates the elapsed time to the number of bacteria.
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If the container where the bacteria are is completely full when there are $2^{18}$ bacteria, at what time will this happen?
Scientific notation
Some numbers are huge: a streaming app might log millions of plays a day. Scientific notation writes them in a short, comparable way using a power of $10$.
A hummingbird's heart beats approximately $1200$ times per minute. 1. How many times will it beat in a full day? Express the result in scientific notation. 2. If the…
A hummingbird's heart beats approximately $1200$ times per minute.
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How many times will it beat in a full day? Express the result in scientific notation.
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If the hummingbird lives an average of $5$ years, how many heartbeats will it have in its entire life? (Consider a year as $365$ days).
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Use the order of operations to write a single expression that calculates the total heartbeats in those $5$ years.
Time and base 60
You have probably never thought about it, but a clock is a number system. $1$ hour $= 60$ minutes and $1$ minute $= 60$ seconds, so $1$ hour $= 3{,}600$ seconds. This is base 60, which is a sexagesimal system. It comes from the ancient Babylonians in Mesopotamia, and we still use it.
A time can be written in mixed units (hours, minutes, seconds) or in a single unit (all seconds).
The Babylonians wrote numbers with two wedge-shaped marks: a vertical wedge worth $1$ and a horizontal wedge worth $10$. Their system was positional in base $60$. Each group of wedges is a "digit" from $1$ to $59$, and a space separates the groups. The group on the right is worth $\times 1$, the next to the left is $\times 60$, then $\times 60^2 = 3{,}600$, and so on. It works just like $h : m : s$ on a clock.
Here the horizontal wedges (orange) are tens and the vertical wedges (blue) are ones. With three groups, say $2 \mid 31 \mid 7$, the value is $2 \times 3{,}600 + 31 \times 60 + 7 = 7{,}200 + 1{,}860 + 7 = 9{,}067$.
The ancient Babylonians used a sexagesimal system (base 60) to measure time, a system we still use today. If a basketball game lasts $1$ hour, $22$ minutes and $15$…
The ancient Babylonians used a sexagesimal system (base 60) to measure time, a system we still use today. If a basketball game lasts $1$ hour, $22$ minutes and $15$ seconds, express the total duration of the game solely in seconds.
A content creator has recorded three videos for his channel. The first lasts $1$ h $15$ min $40$ s, the second lasts $45$ min $25$ s and the third $1$ h $5$ s. a) What…
A content creator has recorded three videos for his channel. The first lasts $1$ h $15$ min $40$ s, the second lasts $45$ min $25$ s and the third $1$ h $5$ s.
- a) What is the total duration of the three videos expressed in single-unit form (seconds)?
- b) If he wants the playlist to last exactly $4$ hours, how much footage does he have left to record? Express the result in mixed-unit form (hours, minutes and seconds).
At an archaeological site in ancient Mesopotamia, a tablet with a grain inventory has been found. The Mesopotamian system is sexagesimal (base $60$) and positional. The…
At an archaeological site in ancient Mesopotamia, a tablet with a grain inventory has been found. The Mesopotamian system is sexagesimal (base $60$) and positional. The symbols used are the vertical wedge ($\curlyvee$) which is worth $1$ and the horizontal wedge ($\prec$) which is worth $10$.
Translate the number represented on the following tablet into our decimal system, bearing in mind that the space between the groups of symbols indicates a change in the order of units:
Write the complete arithmetic expression and the final result in the decimal numeral system.
Roman numerals
Before our decimal system, Romans wrote numbers with letters. You still see them on clocks, monument dates, movie sequels and Super Bowl names.
To go the other way, write the number place by place (thousands, hundreds, tens, ones) and change each part.
Walking through the center of your city, you see a plaque on an ancient monument that indicates the year of its construction in Roman numerals: MDCCCXCVII. Translate…
Walking through the center of your city, you see a plaque on an ancient monument that indicates the year of its construction in Roman numerals: MDCCCXCVII. Translate that date into our decimal numeral system.
An archaeologist has discovered an inscription at the entrance of an ancient temple that indicates the year of its construction in Roman numerals: MMCDLIV. a) Translate…
An archaeologist has discovered an inscription at the entrance of an ancient temple that indicates the year of its construction in Roman numerals: MMCDLIV.
- a) Translate the year into the Decimal Numeral System.
- b) If the temple was restored $136$ years after its construction, write the year of the restoration in Roman numerals as well.
Binary numbers
Computers store numbers with switches that are either off or on, so they use base 2, with only the digits $0$ and $1$. Each place is worth twice the place to its right, so the places are powers of $2$: $\ldots, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1$, which are $2^4, 2^3, 2^2, 2^1, 2^0$. Note $2^0 = 1$.
Counting in binary: $1$, $10$, $11$, $100$, $101$, … are the numbers $1, 2, 3, 4, 5$. We write $11010_2$ with a small $2$ to show the base.
When a problem asks for the code as a number in our system, first convert to decimal. Then write that decimal number in expanded form with powers of $10$.
The language used by computers is the binary system (base 2), which only uses the digits $0$ and $1$. If the binary number $101$ is equivalent to the number $5$ in our…
The language used by computers is the binary system (base 2), which only uses the digits $0$ and $1$. If the binary number $101$ is equivalent to the number $5$ in our decimal system, and $110$ is equivalent to $6$, what decimal number is the binary number $1000$ equivalent to?
In computing, numbers are usually represented in the binary system. A storage device indicates that it has the following sectors occupied, represented by the binary…
In computing, numbers are usually represented in the binary system. A storage device indicates that it has the following sectors occupied, represented by the binary number $101101_2$.
- a) What number does it represent in our decimal system?
- b) Write the decimal number $75$ in binary code.
A data server uses LED bulbs to show error codes in binary. Each bulb that is on represents a $1$ and each bulb that is off represents a $0$. The system reads the bulbs…
A data server uses LED bulbs to show error codes in binary. Each bulb that is on represents a $1$ and each bulb that is off represents a $0$. The system reads the bulbs from right to left, where the first bulb on the right represents $2^0$, the second $2^1$, the third $2^2$, and so on.
If the server shows the following status, determine the decimal number of the error code and write its polynomial expansion in powers of base $10$.
Triangular and hexagonal numbers
The Pythagoreans in ancient Greece drew numbers as dots in shapes. The triangular numbers $T_1, T_2, T_3, \ldots$ come from adding a new row to a triangle each time.
The pattern is clear: $T_n = 1 + 2 + 3 + \cdots + n$, so each triangle adds a new row with $n$ dots. There is also a shortcut: two copies of $T_n$ fit together to make an $n \times (n + 1)$ rectangle, so $T_n = \dfrac{n(n + 1)}{2}$.
The hexagonal numbers $H_n$ are dot hexagons with $n$ dots on each side, and each one grows from the previous by a new outer rim. The first values are:
| $n$ | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $H_n$ | $1$ | $6$ | $15$ |
| New dots added | $5$ | $9$ |
The rim grows by $4$ each time ($5, 9, 13, \ldots$), which lets you draw or count the next shape. The formula gives the same values directly:
The Pythagoreans represented numbers using dots to form geometric shapes. Look at the following sequence of triangular numbers and, without needing to draw all the dots,…
The Pythagoreans represented numbers using dots to form geometric shapes. Look at the following sequence of triangular numbers and, without needing to draw all the dots, indicate how many dots the fifth number in the sequence ($T_5$) would have.
Triangular numbers are those that can be represented by dots forming an equilateral triangle. Look at the following sequence: a) How many dots will the sixth triangular…
Triangular numbers are those that can be represented by dots forming an equilateral triangle. Look at the following sequence:
- a) How many dots will the sixth triangular number ($T_6$) have?
- b) Draw the triangular number $T_4$ in your notebook and check if the sum of two consecutive triangular numbers $T_3 + T_4$ results in a perfect square number.
The Pythagoreans studied polygonal numbers. Look at the following sequence of hexagonal numbers and answer: 1. Draw or describe what the shape of the fourth hexagonal…
The Pythagoreans studied polygonal numbers. Look at the following sequence of hexagonal numbers and answer:
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Draw or describe what the shape of the fourth hexagonal number ($H_4$) would look like.
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How many dots will the shape $H_5$ have?
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Knowing that the formula to calculate the hexagonal number in position $n$ is $H_n = 2n^2 - n$, calculate the value for $H_{12}$.
Summary
Back to the start: there is no largest natural number, because you can always add $1$. And between $7$ and $8$ there is no natural number. Babylonians counted in groups of $60$, Romans used letters, and computers use $0$s and $1$s, yet all of them are writing the same natural numbers.