Review of Elementary Mathematics

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1.2 REVIEW OF ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS

In this section we review the terminology, notation, and formulas of elementary mathematics.

Sets
A set is a collection of distinct objects. The objects in a set are called the elements or members of the set. We will denote sets by capital letters and use lowercase letters to denote the elements. For a collection of objects to be a set it must be well-defined; that is, given any object x, it must be possible to determine with certainty whether or not x is an element of the set. Thus the collection of all even numbers, the collection of all lines parallel to a given line l, the solutions of the equation are all sets. The collection of all intelligent adults is not a set. It's not clear who should be included.

Notions and Notation

These are the only notions from set theory that you will need at this point.

Real Numbers
Classification

Decimal Representation

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Each real number can be expressed as a decimal. To express a rational number numerator p. The resulting decimal either terminates or repeats:

as a decimal, we divide the denominator q into the

are terminating decimals;

are repeating decimals. (The bar over the sequence of digits indicates that the sequence repeats indefinitely.) The converse is also true; namely, every terminating or repeating decimal represents a rational number. The decimal expansion of an irrational number can neither terminate nor repeat. The expansions

do not terminate and do not develop any repeating pattern. If we stop the decimal expansion of a given number at a certain decimal place, then the result is a rational number that approximates the given number. For instance, 1.414 = 1414/1000 is a rational number approximation to and 3.14 = 314/100 is a rational number approximation to . More accurate approximations can be obtained by using more decimal places from the expansions.

The Number Line (Coordinate Line, Real Line)

On a horizontal line we choose a point O. We call this point the origin and assign to it coordinate 0. Now we choose a point U to the right of O and assign to it coordinate 1. See Figure 1.2.1. The distance between O and U determines a scale (a unit length). We go on as follows: the point a units to the right of O is assigned coordinate a; the point a units to the left of O is assigned coordinate .

Figure 1.2.1

In this manner we establish a one-to-one correspondence between the points of a line and the numbers of the real number system. Figure 1.2.2 shows some real numbers represented as points on the number line. Positive numbers appear to the right of 0, negative numbers to the left of 0.

Figure 1.2.2

Order Properties
i. Either and , then and and , then , then , , or , then . . for all real numbers c. . . (trichotomy) ii. If iii. If iv. If v. If

(Techniques for solving inequalities are reviewed in Section 1.3.)

Density

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Between any two real numbers there are infinitely many rational numbers and infinitely many irrational numbers. In particular, there is no smallest positive real number.

Absolute Value

Techniques for solving inequalities that feature absolute value are reviewed in Section 1.3.

Intervals
Suppose that . The open interval is the set of all numbers between a and b:

The closed interval

is the open interval

together with the endpoints a and b:

There are seven other types of intervals:

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Interval notation is easy to remember: we use a square bracket to include an endpoint and a parenthesis to exclude it. On a number line, inclusion is indicated by a solid dot, exclusion by an open dot. The symbols and , read infinity and negative infinity (or minus infinity), do not represent real numbers. In the intervals listed above, the symbol is used to indicate that the interval extends indefinitely in the positive direction; the symbol is used to indicate that the interval extends indefinitely in the negative direction.

Open and Closed

Any interval that contains no endpoints is called open: , , , of its endpoints (there may be one or two) is called closed: , , called half-open (half-closed): is open on the left and closed on the right; of an interval that are not endpoints are called interior points of the interval. are open. Any interval that contains each are closed. The intervals and are is closed on the left and open on the right. Points

Boundedness
A set S of real numbers is said to be: i. Bounded above if there exists a real number M such that such a number M is called an upper bound for S. ii. Bounded below if there exists a real number m such that such a number m is called a lower bound for S. iii. Bounded if it is bounded above and below. Note that if M is an upper bound for S, then any number greater than M is also an upper bound for S, and if m is a lower bound for S, than any number less than m is also a lower bound for S.

The intervals and are both bounded above by 2 (and by every number greater than 2), but these sets are not bounded below. The set of positive integers is bounded below by 1 (and by every number less than 1), but the set is not bounded above; there being no number M greater than or equal to all positive integers, the set has no upper bound. All finite sets of numbers are bounded(bounded below by the least element and bounded above by the greatest). Finally, the set of all integers, , is unbounded in both directions; it is unbounded above and unbounded below.

Factorials
Let n be a positive integer. By n factorial, denoted In particular , we mean the product of the integers from n down to 1:

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For convenience we define 0! = 1.

Algebra
Powers and Roots

Basic Formulas

More generally:

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Quadratic Equations
The roots of a quadratic equation are given by the general quadratic formula

If , the equation has two real roots; if real roots, but it has two complex roots.

, the equation has one real root; if

, the equation has no

Geometry
Elementary Figures
Triangle Equilateral Triangle

Rectangle

Rectangular Solid

Square

Cube

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Triangle

Equilateral Triangle

Circle

Sphere

Sector of a Circle: radius r, central angle measured in radians (see Section 1.6).

Right Circular Cylinder

Right Circular Cone

EXERCISES 1.2
Exercises 110. Is the number rational or irrational? 1. 2. 3. . .

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4. 5. 0. 6. 7. . 8. 0.125. 9. . 10.

Exercises 1116. Replace the symbol * by <, >, or = to make the statement true. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. . . . . . .

Exercises 1723. Evaluate 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. . . . . . . .

Exercises 2433. Indicate on a number line the numbers x that satisfy the condition. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. . . . . . . .

. .

Exercises 3440. Sketch the set on a number line. 34. 35. 36. . . .

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37. 38. 39. 40.

. . . .

Exercises 4147. State whether the set is bounded above, bounded below, bounded. If a set is bounded above, give an upper bound; if it is bounded below, give a lower bound; if it is bounded, give an upper bound and a lower bound. 41. 42. 43. The set of even integers. 44. . 45. 46. . . . . .

47. The set of rational numbers less than Exercises 4850. 48. 49. Let and define

Order the following numbers and place them on a number line: for

. Find at least five values for . Is the set

bounded above, bounded below, bounded? If so, give a lower bound and/or an upper bound for S. If n is a large positive integer, what is the approximate value of ? 50. Rework Exercise 49 with and

Exercises 5156. Write the expression in factored form. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. . . . . . .

Exercises 5764. Find the real roots of the equation. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. . . . . . . . .

Exercises 6569. Evaluate.

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65. 5!. 66. 67. 68. 69.

. . . .

70. Show that the sum of two rational numbers is a rational number. 71. Show that the sum of a rational number and an irrational number is irrational. 72. Show that the product of two rational numbers is a rational number. 73. Is the product of a rational number and an irrational number necessarily rational? necessarily irrational? 74. Show by example that the sum of two irrational numbers (a) can be rational; (b) can be irrational. Do the same for the product of two irrational numbers. 75. Prove that is irrational. HINT: Assume that with the fraction written in lowest terms. Square both sides of this equation and argue that both p and q must be divisible by 2. 76. Prove that is irrational. 77. Let S be the set of all rectangles with perimeter P. Show that the square is the element of S with largest area. 78. Show that if a circle and a square have the same perimeter, then the circle has the larger area. Given that a circle and a rectangle have the same perimeter, which has the larger area? The following mathematical tidbit was first seen by one of the authors many years ago in Granville, Longley, and Smith, Elements of Calculus, now a Wiley book. 79. Theorem (a phony one): .

PROOF (a phony one): Let a and b be real numbers, both different from 0. Suppose now that . Then

Since

, we have

Division by a, which by assumption is not 0, gives

What is wrong with this argument?

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