Sunday 28 August 2022

How to introduce numbers easily?

How to introduce numbers easily?

Mathematics means numbers. Numbers are born from the basis of counting.

Simple learning aids like tamarind seeds or beads are enough to teach and learn counting.

'One' is the beginning of counting. It is also the smallest number in counting. If you start counting from one it goes on endlessly. Its result cannot be stopped anywhere, be it thousand, lakh or crore. These numbers used for counting become natural numbers.

By giving tamarind seeds or beads and asking them to count, they can count them and say a number numerically. How can you tell the number of a tamarind seed or a bell if you are not given it?

You will ask how to calculate without giving anything. There is nothing to count on. I mean not even one. This nothingness is zero.

If we combine zero with the natural numbers that make up the set of numbers called whole numbers.

Natural numbers start at one and go to infinity whereas whole numbers start at zero and go to infinity. Now you have an infinite set of numbers starting from zero.

Next imagine such an event. An airplane flies 500 meters in the sky above sea level. Similarly, a submarine travels at a depth of 500 meters below sea level. How would you tell the heights of these two?

One is above sea level. The other is below sea level. Both upstream and downstream are exactly 500 meters apart. But don't you understand that 500 meters above and 500 meters below are not the same. It is to differentiate this that the numbers have to be given plus and minus value of character. A convention used in mathematics is that an airplane flying above is given a positive value that is +500 meters and a submarine traveling below is given a negative value that is -500.

From this it is clear that for every number in plus value we can say a number in minus value. That is, if we say a number +2, we can also say a number -2, right? So numbers can be divided into positive numbers and negative numbers.

With the whole number system we have already seen, we can connect the set of numbers -1, -2, -3, ... to its left side. What do we get now? Isn't the set of positive numbers to the right of the zero and negative numbers to the left?

Does the set of numbers become … -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, …? We call this collection as integers. That is, a set of numbers consisting of whole numbers and negative numbers. In this case we call the numbers with positive values ​​as plus numbers and the numbers with negative values ​​as minus numbers.

Is that all the number set? Are there any other number sets you ask?

It just needs some more number sets. Now take two numbers zero and one. The question is whether there are any other numbers between these two numbers or not. Let's see where you answer. Are you saying no? That's not it. There are infinite numbers between these two numbers.

How can there be other numbers between zero and one? All the numbers we have mentioned so far are integer numbers. That's why we mentioned its name as integers. In that case, there are numbers i.e. half, quarter and three-quarter.

What do you think it will be like? Let's say you buy an apple. Suppose you only have money to buy one apple. Just as you are about to buy an apple and eat it, your beloved friend arrives. What will you do now? You don't even have money to buy another apple. You will divide the apple in two and share it with your friend. Now you have shared the whole apple? Half an apple. That means you only shared half of the apple that wasn't whole. How would you say this in numbers? You will say one by two in fractional form. We call this half the case. Now think where this half will be. It is somewhere between zero and one. That is half of one. Similarly, numbers like quarter and three quarters are also in between. Not only this, but there are infinite number of fractional numbers between them. Similarly there are infinitely many fractional numbers between two integers.

These fractional numbers are called rational numbers. i.e. rational numbers. Then there are numbers that are not irrational. What do you think it would look like? Numbers like square root of two, square root of third, pi which is used in circumference and area of ​​a circle belong to that category.

So many numbers? If you ask if you would like to say that there are any imaginary numbers, there are also numbers called complex numbers. Don't let your imagination run wild about it just yet. You can also imagine complex numbers in ninth grade in Tamilnadu syllabus as you go through each grade step by step.

I hope you find this introduction to numbers useful. If you have any other doubt or difficulty in understanding then share your thoughts about it in the comment box.

We will continue to travel with mathematics in the coming days.

Thanks kids and math lovers.

*****

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