Natural number

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Natural numbers can be used for counting (one apple, two apples, three apples, ...) from top to bottom.
In mathematics, natural numbers are the ordinary counting numbers 1, , !, ... (sometimes "ero is also included).
#here is no uni$ersal agreement about which set of numbers is designated by the term %natural numbers%& some use it
to designate the positive integers '1, , !, ...(, others include the number ), so that the term designates the non-
negative integers '), 1, , !, ...(. #he former definition is the traditional one, the use of the latter definition appears
first in the 1*th century.
Natural numbers ha$e two main purposes& counting (%there are + coins on the table%) and ordering (%this is the !rd
largest city in the country%). #hese purposes are related to the linguistic notions of cardinal and ordinal numbers,
respecti$ely. (,ee -nglish numerals.) . more recent notion is that of a nominal number, which is used only for
naming.
/roperties of the natural numbers related to di$isibility, such as the distribution of prime numbers, are studied in
number theory. /roblems concerning counting and ordering, such as partition enumeration, are studied in
combinatorics.
Contents
1 0istory of natural numbers and the status of "ero
Notation
! .lgebraic properties
1 /roperties
2 3enerali"ations
+ Formal definitions
o +. 4onstructions based on set theory
+..1 . standard construction
+.. 5ther constructions
History of natural numbers and the status of zero
#he natural numbers had their origins in the words used to count things, beginning with the number 1.
#he first ma6or ad$ance in abstraction was the use of numerals to represent numbers. #his allowed systems to be
de$eloped for recording large numbers. #he ancient -gyptians de$eloped a powerful system of numerals with distinct
hieroglyphs for 1, 1), and all the powers of 1) up to o$er one million.
. much later ad$ance in abstraction was the de$elopment of the idea of "ero as a number with its own numeral. .
"ero digit had been used in place7$alue notation as early as 8)) 94 by the 9abylonians but they omitted it when it
would ha$e been the last symbol in the number.
:1;
#he 5lmec and <aya ci$ili"ation used "ero as a separate number as
early as the 1st century 94, but this usage did not spread beyond <esoamerica. #he concept as used in modern times
originated with the Indian mathematician 9rahmagupta in +=. Ne$ertheless, medie$al computers (i.e. people who
calculated the date of -aster), beginning with >ionysius -?iguus in 22, used "ero as a number without using a
@oman numeral to write it. Instead nullus, the Aatin word for %nothing%, was employed.
,e$eral set7theoretical definitions of natural numbers were de$eloped in the 1*th century. With these definitions it was
con$enient to include ) (corresponding to the empty set) as a natural number. Including ) is now the common
con$ention among set theorists, logicians, and computer scientists. <any other mathematicians also include ),
although some ha$e kept the older tradition and take 1 to be the first natural number.
:!;
,ometimes the set of natural
numbers with ) included is called the set of whole numbers or counting numbers.
Notation
1
<athematicians use N or (an N in blackboard bold, displayed as in Bnicode) to refer to the set of all natural
numbers. #his set is countably infinite& it is infinite but countable by definition. #his is also e?pressed by saying that
the cardinal number of the set is aleph7null .
#o be unambiguous about whether "ero is included or not, sometimes an inde? (or superscript) %)% is added in the
former case, and a superscript % C % or subscript %1% is added in the latter case&
(,ometimes, an inde? or superscript %D% is added to signify %positi$e%. 0owe$er, this is often used for %nonnegati$e%
in other cases, as R
D
E :),F) and Z
D
E ' ), 1, ,... (, at least in -uropean literature. #he notation % C %, howe$er, is
standard for non"ero, or rather, in$ertible elements.)
,ome authors who e?clude "ero from the naturals use the terms natural numbers with zero, whole numbers, or
counting numbers, denoted W, for the set of nonnegati$e integers. 5thers use the notation P for the positi$e integers if
there is no danger of confusing this with the prime numbers.
,et theorists often denote the set of all natural numbers including "ero by a lower7case 3reek letter omega& G. #his
stems from the identification of an ordinal number with the set of ordinals that are smaller. 5ne may obser$e that
adopting the $on Neumann definition of ordinals and defining cardinal numbers as minimal ordinals among those
with same cardinality, one gets .
Algebraic properties
#he addition operations on natural numbers ha$e se$eral algebraic properties&
4losure under addition and multiplication& for all natural numbers a and b, both a D b and a H b are natural
numbers.
.ssociati$ity& for all natural numbers a, b, and c, a D (b D c) E (a D b) D c and a H (b H c) E (a H b) H c.
4ommutati$ity& for all natural numbers a and b, a D b E b D a and a H b E b H a.
-?istence of identity elements& for e$ery natural number a, a D ) E a and a H 1 E a.
>istributi$ity of multiplication o$er addition for all natural numbers a, b, and c,
a H (b D c) E (a H b) D (a H c)
No "ero di$isors& if a and b are natural numbers such that a H b E ) then a E ) or b E )
Properties
5ne can recursi$ely define an addition on the natural numbers by setting a D ) E a and a D S(b) E S(a D b) for all a, b.
0ere S should be read as %successor%. #his turns the natural numbers (N, D) into a commutati$e monoid with identity
element ), the so7called free monoid with one generator. #his monoid satisfies the cancellation property and can be
embedded in a group. #he smallest group containing the natural numbers is the integers.
If we define 1 &E S()), then b D 1 E b D S()) E S(b D )) E S(b). #hat is, b D 1 is simply the successor of b.
.nalogously, gi$en that addition has been defined, a multiplication H can be defined $ia a H ) E ) and a H ,(b) E (a H
b) D a. #his turns (N
C
, H) into a free commutati$e monoid with identity element 1I a generator set for this monoid is
the set of prime numbers. .ddition and multiplication are compatible, which is e?pressed in the distribution law& a H
(b D c) E (a H b) D (a H c). #hese properties of addition and multiplication make the natural numbers an instance of a
commutati$e semiring. ,emirings are an algebraic generali"ation of the natural numbers where multiplication is not
necessarily commutati$e. #he lack of additi$e in$erses, which is eJui$alent to the fact that N is not closed under
subtraction, means that N is not a ringI instead it is a semiring (also known as a rig).
If we interpret the natural numbers as %e?cluding )%, and %starting at 1%, the definitions of D and H are as abo$e, e?cept
that we start with a D 1 E S(a) and a H 1 E a.
For the remainder of the article, we write ab to indicate the product a H b, and we also assume the standard order of
operations.
Furthermore, one defines a total order on the natural numbers by writing a K b if and only if there e?ists another
natural number c with a D c E b. #his order is compatible with the arithmetical operations in the following sense& if a,
b and c are natural numbers and a K b, then a D c K b D c and ac K bc. .n important property of the natural numbers is
that they are well7ordered& e$ery non7empty set of natural numbers has a least element. #he rank among well7ordered
sets is e?pressed by an ordinal numberI for the natural numbers this is e?pressed as %G%.

While it is in general not possible to di$ide one natural number by another and get a natural number as result, the
procedure of division with remainder is a$ailable as a substitute& for any two natural numbers a and b with b L ) we
can find natural numbers q and r such that
a E bq D r and r M b.
#he number q is called the quotient and r is called the remainder of di$ision of a by b. #he numbers q and r are
uniJuely determined by a and b. #his, the >i$ision algorithm, is key to se$eral other properties (di$isibility),
algorithms (such as the -uclidean algorithm), and ideas in number theory.
eneralizations
#wo generali"ations of natural numbers arise from the two uses&
. natural number can be used to e?press the si"e of a finite setI more generally a cardinal number is a
measure for the si"e of a set also suitable for infinite setsI this refers to a concept of %si"e% such that if there is
a bi6ection between two sets they ha$e the same si"e. #he set of natural numbers itself and any other
countably infinite set has cardinality aleph7null ( ).
Ainguistic ordinal numbers %first%, %second%, %third% can be assigned to the elements of a totally ordered finite
set, and also to the elements of well7ordered countably infinite sets like the set of natural numbers itself. #his
can be generali"ed to ordinal numbers which describe the position of an element in a well7ordered set in
general. .n ordinal number is also used to describe the %si"e% of a well7ordered set, in a sense different from
cardinality& if there is an order isomorphism between two well7ordered sets they ha$e the same ordinal
number. #he first ordinal number that is not a natural number is e?pressed as GI this is also the ordinal
number of the set of natural numbers itself.
<any well7ordered sets with cardinal number ha$e an ordinal number greater than G (the latter is the lowest
possible). #he least ordinal of cardinality (i.e., the initial ordinal) is G.
For finite well7ordered sets, there is one7to7one correspondence between ordinal and cardinal numbersI therefore they
can both be e?pressed by the same natural number, the number of elements of the set. #his number can also be used to
describe the position of an element in a larger finite, or an infinite, seJuence.
0ypernatural numbers are part of a non7standard model of arithmetic due to ,kolem.
5ther generali"ations are discussed in the article on numbers.
!ormal definitions
0istorically, the precise mathematical definition of the natural numbers de$eloped with some difficulty. #he /eano
a?ioms state conditions that any successful definition must satisfy. 4ertain constructions show that, gi$en set theory,
models of the /eano postulates must e?ist.
Constructions based on set theory
A standard construction
. standard construction in set theory, a special case of the $on Neumann ordinal construction, is to define the natural
numbers as follows&
We set ) &E ' (, the empty set,
and define S(a) E a ' a( for e$ery set a. S(a) is the successor of a, and S is called the successor function.
9y the a?iom of infinity, the set of all natural numbers e?ists and is the intersection of all sets containing )
which are closed under this successor function. #his then satisfies the /eano a?ioms.
-ach natural number is then eJual to the set of all natural numbers less than it, so that
) E ' (
1 E ')( E '' ((
E '), 1( E '), ')(( E ' ' (, '' (( (
! E '), 1, ( E '), ')(, '), ')((( E ' ' (, '' ((, '' (, '' ((( (
n E '), 1, , ..., n7, n71( E '), 1, , ..., n7,( ( n71) E 'n71( ( n71) E S(n71)
and so on. When a natural number is used as a set, this is typically what is meant. Bnder this definition, there
are e?actly n elements (in the naN$e sense) in the set n and n K m (in the naN$e sense) if and only if n is a
subset of m.
!
.lso, with this definition, different possible interpretations of notations like R
n
(n-tuples $ersus mappings of n
into R) coincide.
-$en if the a?iom of infinity fails and the set of all natural numbers does not e?ist, it is possible to define
what it means to be one of these sets. . set n is a natural number means that it is either ) (empty) or a
successor, and each of its elements is either ) or the successor of another of its elements.
1