Notice that 0 is the only number whose opposite is itself.Įxpanding the concept of number further brings us to rational numbers. The integer numbers (or simply integers) extend whole numbers to their opposites too. Different people may give different names to these sets, even sometimes reversing which one they call natural and which one they call whole! Open it up to your students: what would they call the set of numbers 1, 2, 3.? What new name would they give it if they included 0?

While these are standard terms, this is also a chance to share how math is ultimately a human endeavor. If we start counting from 0 instead, the set of numbers are instead called whole numbers. These are the counting numbers that start with 1, 2, and 3, and go on forever. The most common numbers that we encounter-in everything from speed limits to serial numbers-are natural numbers. The notion of number has evolved over millennia and has, at least apocryphally, cost one ancient mathematician his life. It was not always known, for example, how to write and perform arithmetic with zero or negative quantities. They are often our introduction into math and a salient way that math is found in the real world.

But ask someone what math is, and you will almost always hear an answer involving numbers. It includes shapes, logic, symbols, spaces, and broad practices like critical thinking and attending to precision, along with applications far and wide in everything from physics to physical education. ICLE (International Center for Leadership in Education)Ĭustomer Service & Technical Support Portal Into Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, 8-12 Science & Engineering Leveled Readers, K-5

Is 0 a real number